Carrie Low says sexual assault and assault by police stole five years from her life

Carrie Low says the fact that police brushed aside her story of sexual abuse by at least two men in May 2018 seriously affected her mental health and led to an attempted suicide.

“By the third interview, I realized the police didn’t believe me,” Low told a Nova Scotia Police Review Board hearing Monday.

“I felt like they didn’t believe me and it started to affect my mental health,” Low said. “That’s why I attempted suicide.”

Low, now 47, contacted police on May 19, 2018 to report that she had been drugged and then kidnapped by a group of men outside Dave Doolittle’s Tap Room and Grill in Dartmouth earlier that morning or before midnight the night before and raped at an address on Upper Partridge River Road in East Preston.

Nearly a year later, Low filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner about the Halifax Regional Police Department’s pattern of conduct in the case. to cumulative and gross negligence.

“I was kidnapped by several strange people and I was raped, so I thought this was a serious crime,” Low told HRP Const attorney Brian Bailey. Boran Novakovic, the first police officer to speak to her about the rape allegations and the only police officer named in Low’s complaint.

“I was under the impression that someone was going to come by that night,” Low said during his testimony on Monday. “No one came by to pick up clothes and no one came to talk to me.”

Low’s complaint pointed to specific missteps by the Halifax Police Department, namely:

• failure to collect vital evidence related to a serious crime, especially the clothing worn by a victim during an assault;
• failure to send a trauma-informed-response-trained officer to question the victim and not alerting the Sexual Assault Investigation Team in a timely manner;
• failure to process a toxicology report due to improper submission of an essential document; not being present at the crime scene and not seeking evidence; And
• failure to clearly identify a lead investigating officer as the point of contact for a victim.

Low’s 2010 complaint was filed with the Nova Scotia Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner against Novakovic and the Halifax Regional Police.

Low’s application was quickly rejected by the Complaints Commissioner because it was submitted outside the six-month time limit for complaints against municipal police officers.

Lowe then filed with the Nova Scotia Supreme Court for a judicial review of the commissioner’s decision. In an April 2020 ruling, Judge Ann Smith overturned the decision and returned the complaint to the Police Commission for determination.

At the hearing that began Monday at a Dartmouth hotel, Bailey waived Low’s complaints against his client and the department.

Bailey’s questioning indicated that Novakovic was a patrol officer who went to the hospital Low had gone to for a rape kit on the morning of May 19, 2018.

He was not a supervisor on duty or a member of the integrated HRP and RCMP sexual assault investigation team, who is expected to investigate the scene of a sexual assault, Bailey said.

“You’ve never seen anything to indicate he’s ever been assigned to investigate your file,” Bailey said.

Asked to identify her specific problem with Novakovic, Low said it was that he didn’t secure any evidence, including the clothes she wore during the attack, he didn’t investigate the identified location, he didn’t even give her a ride. At home.

The case was turned over to the Sexual Assault Investigation team, but Low testified that she was told they were not working over the May long weekend and that a team member would contact her the following Tuesday.

Low described months of difficulty reaching the police and obtaining information about the progress of her case. Promised police follow-up talks with her were canceled and not rescheduled.

In October 2021, a publication ban on Low’s identity was lifted by Dartmouth County Court at her request.

“I have nothing to hide,” she said at the time.

Nearly two years passed from the time of the reported assault before 35-year-old Alexander Joseph Frederick Thomas of East Preston was arrested and charged in February 2020.

Thomas was awaiting trial on charges of assault and forcible confinement when he was shot and killed at a house on Braeside Court in Dartmouth on 13 November 2021. The charges were dismissed by the provincial court three days later.

In May of this year, Brent Alexander Julien was found not guilty of assault in the Low case.

Julien, 35, was arrested in February 2022.

In an hour-long decision, Judge Jill Hartlen said she accepted evidence that Low had been sexually assaulted by two men in a motor home in East Preston, but said the evidence did not put her beyond a reasonable doubt that Julien was one of the attackers.

The Crown filed an appeal with the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal on 21 June, requesting that the acquittal be set aside and replaced by a conviction or a new trial.

“I’ve waited five years, more specifically four years since I made the complaint,” Low said Monday after the first day of the police hearing.

“This feels like the final step for me to hold the police accountable for their negligence in a serious assault like mine. I look forward to the conclusion of this, to be honest, to try to put this aside and work towards healing and moving forward.”

Bailey and Ted Murphy, attorney for the Regional Municipality of Halifax, appeared to attribute any negligence in the case to RCMP Const. Jerrell Smith, the first sexual assault team to lead the case.

“It’s definitely HRP and the RCMP, both of them are guilty of handling this investigation,” Low later told reporters. “I also see serious problems with this integrated unit, not knowing which officer works for which department and which channels the police should send complaints to to try and hold someone accountable. All in all, I think this integrated unit is a failure for the people of Nova Scotia and they should take a serious look at it.”

Low filed a joint civil suit against the RCMP and the Halifax Regional Police in January 2020, which is still pending.

“This investigation has taken five years off my life,” an emotional Low told reporters. “I have lost five years of my life, my children have lost their mother for five years. It’s been devastating and difficult and I’ve had a hard time.

“I’ve built a great support team that keeps me going and I’ve spent the rest of my life holding police accountable to victims and survivors of sexual assault and that’s how I can move forward.”

The three-member board of directors, chaired by Jean McKenna, will hear more testimonies on Tuesday and Thursday of this week and next week.