Canada.com/EdmontonJournal
Disciplinary charges have been dropped against two Edmonton police officers who failed to take a teenager to a hospital last year after suffering minor injuries.
Const. Colin Hughan and Const. Don Brownell were charged with neglect and insubordination for failing to get medical help for the teenager and not taking “all reasonable and available steps” to locate a parent or other responsible adult, as outlined in police policy.
They were exonerated of all charges in a disciplinary ruling today.
Supt. Mark Logar, who presided over the hearing, said the officers made an honest mistake in initially thinking they were dealing with a woman in her 20s instead of a 16 year old. He noted that when they learned they were dealing with a teen, the youth received the attention necessary given police policy.
“Absent very unusual circumstances, help cannot be forced on an intended but unwilling beneficiary,” Logar said. The youth ?was exactly that ? a person who repeatedly, clearly, belligerently, and profanely declined medical and police assistance…. Without clear legal authority justifying her detention or forced transportation to a hospital, the two constables resorted to the only available option left to them.?
During a hearing in June, the teen was referred to as a transvestite male who looked like a female.
But Logar said whether the teen was a transvestite or transgendered wasn?t relevant to the case.