IAPE Evidence Blog

Kam­loops Daily News, kamloopsnews.ca
BYLINE: Jason Hewlett, Daily News Staff Reporter
Link to Article

Mer­ritt, BC

Staff Sgt. Stu­art Seib CFJC-TV

RCMP will inves­ti­gate Staff Sgt. Stu­art Seib’s time as head of the Clear­wa­ter detach­ment in order to see how far back his alleged drug indis­cre­tions might reach.

Depend­ing on what the ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion reveals, offi­cers could look even fur­ther back into Seib’s 18 years with the national police force, said Thomp­son Rivers Uni­ver­sity law pro­fes­sor Micah Rankin.

“You’d think this mat­ter would be treated very seri­ously. You can’t think of any­thing more seri­ous from an employ­ment stand­point,” Rankin said Thursday.

The inves­ti­ga­tion into drugs miss­ing from the Mer­ritt RCMP exhibits was launched Jan. 6.

Seib, who took over as the detachment’s com­man­der in Novem­ber, was arrested on Mon­day and has since been charged with theft. He’s also accused of using the cocaine that went miss­ing from the exhibits.

Whether or not the drugs were taken for per­sonal use will be a part of the inves­ti­ga­tion, said Rankin.

In order to main­tain trans­parency, he would like the RCMP to bring in an out­side police agency to con­tinue the case.

“I think we would hope, in this kind of sce­nario, that they would use an out­side police force,” he said.

When it comes time to pro­ceed with charges, Rankin wouldn’t be sur­prised if a spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor is recruited to take the mat­ter to court. He said this would be a good way to show the inves­ti­ga­tion is impartial.

“It would look above the board,” said Rankin.

RCMP refused to com­ment on the case beyond what was said at a press con­fer­ence Wednesday.

Mer­ritt Mayor Susan Rolene told The Daily News that police are look­ing into Seib’s seven years at the Clear­wa­ter detach­ment as part of their investigation.

“They want to see if this is an ongo­ing thing or not,” she said.

Rolene learned about the alle­ga­tions on Mon­day, and had a hard time con­tain­ing her sur­prise, she said. Seib came highly rec­om­mended by Clear­wa­ter Mayor John Har­wood and her ini­tial deal­ings with him were pleasant.

“I was look­ing for­ward to work­ing with him,” said Rolene.

The peo­ple of Mer­ritt barely had time to get to know their RCMP com­man­der, but Seib was well liked in Clear­wa­ter. Dis­trict coun­cil­lor Mer­lin Black­well said the com­mu­nity is in shock.

“It’s out of char­ac­ter for him,” said Blackwell.

Robert Beaudry, a teacher at Raft River ele­men­tary and vol­un­teer with Wells Gray Search and Res­cue, agrees. He worked with Seib through the school, and search and res­cue and has a hard time accept­ing the allegations.

“It’s a real sur­prise,” he said.

But Beaudry doesn’t believe the community’s con­fi­dence in the RCMP is shaken. He said the detach­ment has some great offi­cers and the com­mu­nity is well served.

James Umpher­son, eco­nomic devel­op­ment man­ager for the City of Mer­ritt, said the alle­ga­tions reflect more on Seib than they do on the RCMP.

“It’s not a reflec­tion on our detach­ment,” he said.

The RCMP has rein­stated Sgt. Norm Flem­ming as tem­po­rary com­man­der of the Mer­ritt detach­ment. Flem­ming took over the task fol­low­ing the depar­ture of Staff Sgt. Scott Tod last summer.

Retired RCMP Sgt. Fred Bott said the alle­ga­tions are seri­ous and could do irrepara­ble harm to Seib’s cred­i­bil­ity as a police officer.

The exhibits hold case evi­dence and are among the most impor­tant part of any detach­ment, said Bott. He who holds the key to the exhibits must remain above question.

“The most impor­tant thing to a police offi­cer is his cred­i­bil­ity,” he said. “You bet­ter be able to say, when you get on the stand, that you took care of those exhibits.”

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