'It's wrong': Former RNC officer says he was scrutinized for too long, too many times

After multiple investigations stemming from a2012 phone call he made tipping off a fellow officer that an investigation into his conduct was underway, former RNC Tim Buckle says enough is enough.

"I have acknowledged from Day 1 it was a mistake to call him, but there was no criminal intent," Buckle told CBC's On The Go.

"A lengthy investigation that's soliciting opinions from [multiple] different agencies to get a different result is wrong. It's wrong for [any]police officerto have to undergo that," he said, his voice cracking.

In 2012, Buckle phoned fellow officer Sean Kelly and gave him a "heads-up" that he was being investigated for making sexual phone calls on a police-owned phone. Buckle was president of theRoyal Newfoundland Constabulary Association at the time.

"My thought was, 'What police officer would be so idiotic to use a work phone to make harassing phone calls of a sexual nature?'" Buckle said.

Buckle said he didn't make the call with the intention of affectingany police investigation, and Kelly had already been told by an officer that calls from his phone were under the microscope.

"While Iused the colloquial term'heads-up,' I did not in any way give him new information or any information he could have used to avoid prosecution."

After hiscall to Kelly, Buckle reported the matter to his supervisors.

Says RNCmanagement 'shopping'for different opinion

Records of the call were released during Kelly's trial in 2015.

• Disgraced Corner Brook cop Sean Kelly sentenced to 10 months

Numerous probes into Buckle's call followed. The RNCinvestigated, and then the province's director of public prosecutionsreviewed the RNC's investigation.The Ontario Provincial Policethen looked at that review.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Justice also askedNova Scotia's Serious Incident Response Teamto conduct an investigation.

"It seems like senior RNC management kept shopping around for an opinion they wanted and weren't getting," Buckle said.

He said the ordeal leaves a particularly bad taste in his mouth after so many years with theRoyal Newfoundland Constabulary Association, which aims to improve benefits and working conditions for police officers.

Grounds for charges but not for conviction?

The latest review of Buckle's behaviour was carried out byformer Crown attorney James Maher. In his report, completed in September,he said Buckle didn't act with proper discretion and thatthere are grounds to charge himwith obstruction of justice.

• Grounds for charge against former RNC officer, but conviction unlikely: leaked report

But heconcluded that there is reasonable doubt Buckle intended to interfere with an investigation, making a conviction unlikely.

St. John's defence lawyerEllen O'Gormansays it's notuncommon for a case to have grounds for charges but not for conviction.

Police look for evidence of an offence, but not for proof beyond a reasonable doubt, she said and that's what a conviction requires.

"Before they lay a charge, what they have to be convinced of is that there is a reasonable basis tobelieve that an offence has been committed," she said.

Proof beyond reasonable doubt is determined in court, and the bar for that assessment is higher, she said. In Buckle's case, O'Gorman said, Maher found he met the lower bar, but not the higher one.

"We know there's an allegation, there might be some evidence there, but if that makes it allthe way to a judge, is [Buckle] going to be convicted?" she said.

"At the end of the report here, Jim Maher says no."

With files from Ted Blades

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