Former Saint John deputy police chief Glen McCloskey, right, is seeking a judicial review of a New Brunswick Police Commission investigation against him. (Wave News)
Saint John’s former deputy police chief wants a judicial review of a New Brunswick Police Commission investigation against him.
Glen McCloskey was accused of asking an officer to lie about him being at Richard Oland’s murder scene in 2011.
In December 2016, the commission’s appointed investigator, Barry MacKnight, concluded the misconduct allegations against McCloskey were founded, but Halifax Regional Police eventually cleared him of any wrongdoing.
But new documents filed with the Court of Queen’s Bench allege the commission’s investigation was done in “bad faith” and McCloskey was “denied natural justice due to a lack of procedural fairness.”
McCloskey missed the three-month deadline to apply for a judicial review but his lawyer, Brian Murphy, contends “compelling reasons and/or extraordinary circumstances exist” to allow for an extension.
“[McCloskey] was only able to fully appreciate the totality of his claim against the New Brunswick Police Commission upon the March 23, 2018 disclosure of documents evidencing bad faith,” reads a notice of preliminary motion filed on March 19, 2019.
Documents filed with the Court of Queen’s Bench allege the New Brunswick Police Commission investigation against former Saint John deputy police chief Glen McCloskey was done in “bad faith.” (Brad Perry/Wave News)
The documents were part of an application filed by Dennis Oland’s defence team ahead of his second-degree murder retrial. McCloskey contends there were “hundreds of pages” of disclosure which he had not seen before, including confidential documents from the Police Act investigation against him.
One of those documents — an internal email from Nov. 21, 2016, between then-executive director Steve Roberge and colleague Lynn Chaplin — stated the appointed investigator was going to sustain the allegations against McCloskey.
“The date of this email correspondence … is significant as MacKnight had not conducted a single interview at this point and had clearly entered his investigation with negative bias against me,” wrote McCloskey in his affidavit.
McCloskey, who retired as deputy chief in April 2018, said he would have continued to work with the force if it were not for the “stress and anguish placed upon” him by the commission.
“I have suffered a great deal from the start of this entire situation,” McCloskey wrote. “I was forced into early retirement from a career that I loved, and my name and reputation have been tarnished.”
A judge is expected to hear the motion for an extension on June 5.
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