Newly released court documents reveal details about the case of a former RCMP officer who admitted to a sexual affair with a witness in the investigation of the Surrey Six murder case.
Documents say Derek Brassington, who was an up-and-coming officer with the Integrated Homicide Investigation Unit (IHIT), was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and severe anxiety due to the intense pressure he felt to solve the high-profile case.
These factors clouded his judgment, according to the court documents, and when he came into contact with a female witness desperate for support, the two had an intense affair.
Brassington received little in the way of formal help to cope with the stress of the job, the documents allege. At one point after the affair was revealed, he was so distraught that a colleague took away his service weapon out of concern, but Brassington remained on the job.
Global News has requested comment from both the RCMP and IHIT.
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In a character reference letter, Brassington’s eldest brother described IHIT as “a meat grinder.”
“I liken Derek and many members of IHIT in that era to thoroughbreds,” the letter reads. “The RCMP [were] willing to ride them as hard as they could for as long as they could but would shoot them without a thought if they tripped and broke a leg.”
The documents describe Brassington as a respected officer with a gift for interrogating witnesses.
On Oct. 14, 2007, Robert Dziekanski died while in police custody, and Brassington was named lead investigator on the case.
Days after Dziekanski’s death, the Surrey Six shootings — the largest gang-related mass murder in B.C. history — took place, and Brassington was asked to be team lead on both high-profile cases. In addition, he and his team were called out to new homicide investigations.
“He was under tremendous pressure from within the RCMP to preserve and restore the public image of the force through the investigation,” the documents said.
The Surrey Six case relied heavily on cultivating and interrogating witnesses, skills that were considered Brassington’s strengths.
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According to the court documents, Brassington was tasked with maintaining a relationship with key witnesses, despite not having been trained to do witness protection work. RCMP devised a “moving witness strategy” that aimed to garner the trust of witnesses and encourage them to leave gang life.
“In doing so, the RCMP officer would fill the role the gang played, offering friendship, support and help to get them set up in a new life where they would succeed,” the documents said.
Brassington was told to do everything he could to earn the trust of witnesses, the documents allege. He was told “not to dress, speak or act like a cop.”
“He assumed the persona of a gangster with no training on covert operations,” according to the documents.
A letter from a psychologist said Brassington’s decision-making ability was negatively affected as he “developed some empathy for individuals associated with gang ‘culture.'”
He was asked to approach someone associated with the Surrey Six case, identified in court documents as Person X, who is described as a person who “had total contempt for the law and believed that violence and murder was an acceptable means to an end.”
Working with Person X, Brassington had to “alter his personality to become someone with a value system with which Person X could identify,” the documents said.
Brassington described the process as having to “sell his soul to the devil.”
During a three-month stretch working with Person X, Brassington worked 595 hours of overtime, according to the documents.
While working with Person X, he was asked to approach a woman identified in documents simply as Jane Doe.
Brassington was tasked with relocating Doe to a new city.
Brassington became close to Doe, who was “struggling with being alone.”
“On a personal level, he felt sorry for her,” the documents said. “On a professional level, this is what he had been instructed to do.”
Eventually, their relationship became physical.
He had sex with the witness in cities across Canada in accommodations paid for by the RCMP while supposedly engaged in official witness management duties, according to a court document.
Brassington, who admitted to being disconnected from reality at this time, fell in love with Doe and believed that they would be together after the case was resolved.
“You are the love of my life, and that will never change,” he wrote to her in an email.
Brassington had occasionally told colleagues about his feelings of burnout. In one meeting with Supt. John Robin, he broke down in tears.
In September 2009, he had another breakdown during a medical checkup, but the RCMP-approved doctor “dismissed his concerns and told him to wait it out until the end of the trial and it would be all over.”
After his superiors found out about the affair, he broke down while talking to Staff Sgt. Al Ross, who removed Brassington’s service weapon out of concern.
“Despite this, he remained on the job,” the documents said.
Brassington pleaded guilty in January to breach of trust and obstructing justice “by compromising the safety and integrity of a witness” during the investigation.
“Instead of restoring public trust and faith in the RCMP, I killed it,” Brassington said during a tearful apology in court. “I made it 1,000 times worse by what I did. I’m sorry to everyone in the country that loves the police. As a dad, I shouldn’t have done this. As a husband, I shouldn’t have done this. As a cop, I shouldn’t have done this.”
People close to Brassington say he was let down by the RCMP.
IHIT was severely short-staffed, suffered from “instability in leadership” and did nothing to help Brassington despite obvious signs of distress, the court documents said.
In a character reference letter, his ex-wife said she believed her marriage to Brassington ended “not due to the affair but due to the immense pressure that the RCMP and IHIT put on Derek to perform.”
“I strongly believe Derek was doing his job during the Surrey Six investigations and he was doing it well. Unfortunately, the RCMP management was not doing theirs.”
—With files from Rumina Daya and Simon Little
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