A public hearing will be held into the conduct of an Abbotsford police officer who pleaded guilty to an assault charge earlier this year.
The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) issued notice on Friday that the hearing is needed to determine whether Const. Adam Page lied in official statements made following the assault.
Page, 38, was sentenced in Abbotsford in April to one year probation and a conditional discharge, meaning he will have no criminal record if he has met all his conditions by the end of his probation.
Information presented in court indicated that Page pushed a handcuffed shoplifting suspect into a wall hard enough to leave a dent during an arrest on Sept. 20, 2009 at the London Drugs store in West Oaks Mall.
The man was not injured nor did he report the incident to the Abbotsford Police Department (APD). Instead, it was brought forward internally.
Following the criminal proceedings, Page faced a disciplinary hearing through the Abbotsford Police Department.
Those proceedings determined that he had abused his authority, but that he had not been deceitful in his written duty report or in oral statements made during an interview following the assault.
Police complaint commissioner Stan Lowe stated in the OPCC documents that there is a “reasonable basis” to believe that the APD erred when it concluded there was no deceit.
Lowe alleges that Page knowingly made false or misleading statements about the incident. In his written report, Page said the suspect had attempted to pull away from him and he then stepped on his ankle and calf, causing the man to lose his balance and fall into the wall, according to Lowe.
Page also made oral statements of that nature during an interview with a staff sergeant, the OPCC documents allege.
Lowe stated that a public hearing is necessary to “preserve public confidence in the police and the disciplinary process.”
“The complaint is serious in nature as the alleged misconducts involve a significant breach of trust.”
A date has not yet been set for the public hearing.
