British Columbia’s municipal police watchdog agency is taking a new look at the case of a Vancouver police officer accused of assaulting a former girlfriend after suggesting the force failed to properly consider the realities of intimate partner violence in its own probe.
At issue are allegations that Constable Neil Logan became impaired and assaulted Alyssa LeBlevec during a 2017 trip to Oregon, striking her multiple times while she was driving and in a vehicle, at the roadside and at their motel. He also allegedly enfolded her in bear hugs against her will.
The constable was subject to a pair of Vancouver Police Department professional standards reviews in 2019 and 2020 that led to disciplinary proposals of 15 days’ suspension without pay as well as suspension without pay for six days and attending sessions with a psychologist.
The police complaint commissioner is dismissive of the reviews’ findings, and suggested a lack of understanding and consideration of the impact of trauma and the dynamics of intimate partner violence in assessing Ms. LeBlevec’s evidence.
Commissioner Clayton Pecknold said discipline authorities with the force made passing references to the “dynamics related to domestic violence” but did not conduct a full assessment of those dynamics.
He noted findings of the reviews that Ms. LeBlevec could have left after the assaults, but did not do so, and that she brought forward allegations of assault because she discovered an alternative love interest involving Constable Logan.
Also, says the commissioner, the discipline authority referred to Constable Logan’s submissions that Ms. LeBlevec’s actions were inconsistent with someone who feared for her life.
But Mr. Pecknold writes, “Those assumptions are inconsistent with well-understood dynamics of trauma in the context of relationship violence."
In a statement, Constable Tania Visintin, media relations officer for Vancouver police, said she could not comment on the case or provide any information because of the Office of Police Complaints Commissioner investigation. Because of that process, she said, Constable Logan’s employment status has not changed.
In an interview, Ms. LeBlevec said Wednesday that she has found the police’s view of domestic violence “heartbreaking.”
Despite the force using “token key terms” about the seriousness and importance of domestic violence, Ms. LeBlevec says, she has been “appalled” by the wording of an initial finding that dismissed her perspective and gave weight to Constable Logan’s view.
“His story has been anything but consistent from Day One yet somehow they are trying to say I am the inconsistent one and I am the unreliable witness, but my story has maintained consistency from Day One,” she said.
“For an organization that says they take domestic violence seriously as they should, they are not practising what they preach. That’s the main issue I would like to see resolved through this.”
Constable Logan’s lawyer, Kevin Woodall, declined comment on Wednesday, saying he would only speak to the matter once it is resolved.
Ms. LeBlevec said her main goal has been to “protect the next girl going through a similar situation. There’s no outcome here that’s going to take away what happened to me, what happened that evening. I would like to see Constable Logan be held accountable for his actions. He should not be a police officer anymore."
Constable Logan is also involved in another pending hearing of the OPCC over 2016 allegations that he and another officer entered a Vancouver home and assaulted a man living in the home along with his son and daughter.
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Ian Bailey