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Const. Stephen Fossen was fired by the Edmonton Police Service in April 2022 after a disciplinary hearing found him guilty of discreditable conduct, an offence under the Police Act
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Alberta’s Court of Appeal has declined to hear the case of an Edmonton police officer fired for groping a colleague, effectively ending his bid to overturn his dismissal.
Const. Stephen Fossen was fired by the Edmonton Police Service in April 2022 after a disciplinary hearing found him guilty of discreditable conduct, an offence under the Police Act.
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The hearing found Fossen touched a junior female officer’s genitals while sharing a bed with her on a 2019 ski trip.
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The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) charged Fossen with sexual assault, but the charge was ultimately withdrawn before trial at the request of the victim.
The internal disciplinary hearing later found Fossen had nonetheless committed misconduct and ordered he be fired.
Fossen appealed to the Law Enforcement Review Board, which upheld the firing.
In a ruling issued Wednesday, Court of Appeal Justice Jane Fagnan found no legal errors in the review board decision and denied Fossen leave to appeal.
The incident in question occurred on an off-duty ski trip in Canmore in January 2019. Several officers attended the outing, which spouses were not permitted to join. The officers brought a large quantity of alcohol, an alcohol screening device and an item described in the disciplinary decision as a “booze bag.”
One night, Fossen left his bedroom to escape a snoring roommate. He tried to sleep on a chair near the victim’s room and was eventually invited to share her bed. Both were clothed, and Fossen fell asleep on top of the bed covers.
The victim awoke and found Fossen’s arm “over top of her and his hand touching her genitals,” wrote Fred Kamins, the retired RCMP officer who presided over Fossen’s hearing.
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“The victim removed the arm, lay there processing what was happening and left the room without speaking. Constable Fossen left without speaking as well.”
Fossen later sent the woman a text reading “sorry for drunk Fozzie.” The victim told a superior what had happened later that month.
Kamins ultimately found the touching rose to a level of sexual assault and directed Fossen be fired. He said it was a case of “a male officer in a position of power sexually assaulting a female subordinate.”
“That is the very crux of ‘Me Too’ and the power imbalance in many workplaces,” he wrote.
Fossen appealed to the Law Enforcement Review Board, which upheld Kamins’ decision. He tried again with the Alberta Court of Appeal. His appeal argued, among other things, that Kamins did not have jurisdiction to hear the case because Chief Dale McFee, not the victim, brought the complaint.
Fossen claimed having the chief “stand in” in a case with an “unwilling or reluctant victim” is “hazardous” and “not a reasonable interpretation” of the Police Act.
He also claimed the review board failed to properly weigh whether there were unreasonable delays in the case, a possible charter violation, or whether firing was the appropriate punishment.
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Fagnan ultimately found no legal errors in the review board’s decision. She ruled the board was correct in finding that firing “fell within a range of reasonable outcomes” and was not “unduly harsh, unwarranted, cruel and unprecedented.”
Bob Hladun, Fossen’s lawyer during the disciplinary hearing, had argued that firing his client was “ridiculous,” saying it was unreasonable to fire someone with an otherwise solid record over “one spur of the moment, drunken act.”
Fossen’s current lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did the Edmonton Police Association, the officers’ union.
Fossen has been suspended without pay since June 2019.
jwakefield@postmedia.com
twitter.com/jonnywakefield
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