New allegations brought against former VPD detective convicted of sexual exploitation

An ex-Vancouver police department officer sentenced to 20 months in prison for sexual exploitation and breach of trust has been served with two new lawsuits.

Vancouver-based lawyer Jason Gratl is representing two women who allege that James Fisher kissed and groped them while acting as their victim support worker while they were helping the Vancouver Police Department investigate convicted pimp Reza Moazami, who had victimized them as underage prostitutes.

Fisher led the investigation of Moazami, according to court documents filed in the B.C. Supreme Court on June 17.

“In the course of purporting to assist and defend and protect these young women, he, Jim Fisher, in fact, victimized them,” Gratl said.

The women, identified in court documents as F.A. and F.B., are accusing Fisher of kissing and groping them. They say Fisher implied that if they told anyone what was happening, it might hurt the investigation against Moazami.

“Fisher knew that F.A. was afraid that if Moazami was free, Moazami would find her and harm her.”

The lawsuit claims that Fisher violated policies by being alone with the women (rather than working in a male/female officer team), contacting them with unusual frequency or for outside the investigation, and by cultivating inappropriate intimate relationships.

The B.C. government is named in the claims because Fisher was providing witness support and counselling to the women on behalf of the province.

The City of Vancouver has been named in the lawsuit as well. Gratl said Fisher’s superior officers knew or should have known that Fisher was violating standard policies and practices and stepped in.

“The remarkable thing here is that the government institutions that were supposed to enact or implement policies to ensure that their own employees like Mr. Fisher would not be able to re-victimize these women utterly failed,” Gratl told Global News.

The women are seeking damages for psychological injuries, violations of their sexual integrity, loss of confidence in police and prosecutors, and other alleged harms.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Last August, Fisher was sentenced to 20 months in jail and two years probation for kissing two women who were witnesses in a separate prostitution investigation against convicted pimp Michael Bannon. One of the women was 17 at the time. Fisher pleaded guilty to breach of trust and sexual exploitation.