Saskatoon Police Service suspends constable with pay

Watch above: Saskatoon police officer faces obstruction of justice charge

SASKATOON –  The Saskatoon Police Service has charged one of its own with attempting to obstruct justice. Thirty-three-year old Steven Nelson, a nine-year member of the service, has been suspended with pay and is heading to court next month.

“We’ve suspended a constable today, we have had to file a review by Saskatchewan Justice, they’ve recommended a charge of attempting to obstruct justice. The constable has been suspended with pay as is recommended under the Saskatchewan Police Act and his court appearance is coming up in November,” said police Chief Clive Weighill.

In a news conference held on Tuesday afternoon, the chief  could say very little about this case but he did say up to this point Const. Steven Nelson had no blemishes on his record.

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Nelson, a member of the patrol division, is accused of deliberately misplacing a victim’s statement between August 2012 and October 2013. Police would not say how they discovered it was missing.

“It’s before the courts, I can’t give you any of the details of the case itself or the investigation. All I can do is confirm that we have charged a constable, I can say it was involved with a domestic violence compliant, the file that he was working.”

A person was charged in that case and Weighill said he doesn’t believe the constable knew the people involved.

“He wasn’t doing anybody a favour.”

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According to Weighill, all statements taken by police are kept electronically and in hard copy. If the statement was in writing, once submitted, it will go into permanent data banks.

“I don’t believe there is any systemic issues with how we document or file our records, it was a one time incident where a statement has gone missing and that’s just the action of one police officer.”

Nelson is scheduled to appear in provincial court on Nov. 20.

He is currently the subject of an investigation to determine if any breaches of discipline may have occurred under the Saskatchewan Police Act.