‘False allegations … were unfortunate and harmful,’ says Halifax cop caught up in fraud probe

Did a Halifax Regional Police officer tweak her back while pushing a car in the snow? Or didn’t she?

When two constables stopped to help a driver whose small silver car got stuck in a snowstorm on the Bedford Highway trying to make a right turn on to Convoy Run just before sunset on Jan. 29, 2022, the ensuing events sparked an avalanche of a fraud investigation.

“Just some moron stuck in the turn-off lane,” one of the constables said in a message to the police dispatcher at 5:08 p.m.

The next day, Const. Katie MacDonald texted her supervisor, Sgt. Gilles Boudreau, “to advise him that that she had been injured the previous day at work while pushing a vehicle that was stuck in the snow,” Sgt. Jamie Payne said in a recently unsealed warrant application in the case.

‘Barely stand’

MacDonald, who joined the force in 2020, told Boudreau she wouldn’t be in to work “as her back was killing her and that she could barely stand upright,” Payne said in information to obtain a search warrant filed at Halifax provincial court.

Boudreau asked MacDonald if she’d injured herself on the job.

MacDonald “responds that she did tweak it at work when we were helping push out a car but didn’t think it was that bad,” Payne said.

Months later, he interviewed Const. Courtney Bradley, who had been MacDonald’s partner on the day of the snowstorm. Bradley heard from another officer — as they spoke about the lack of police on the street and the reason officers were off work — that MacDonald had reported injuring herself pushing a car out of the snow.

Bradley “was surprised to learn” that MacDonald “was off injured from pushing a vehicle out of the snow as she was … MacDonald’s partner on the day of the incident and never saw her push a vehicle out of the snow,” Payne said.

‘Never got out’

Bradley told him that MacDonald “never got out of the vehicle to help pushing the car out of the snow; that in fact it was herself and four males she believed were Halifax Regional Municipality snow clearing crew.”

The small silver car only had to be pushed a little over two metres before it was able to move on its own, Bradley reported.

Bradley told Payne they had “responded to several reports of vehicles stuck that day but at no point did (MacDonald) ever get out and push a vehicle.”

Instead, MacDonald had remained in their patrol car, she said.

‘Hey girl’

Bradley fielded a text from MacDonald on Jan. 30, 2022: “Hey girl. I won’t be in because I tweaked my back. Musta done it at work at some point. Just wanted to let you know!”

Bradley “assumed that the injury must have occurred after her shift,” Payne said, noting that MacDonald “made no mention of hurting her back while pushing the car out of the snow but rather that she must have tweaked it at some time through the day.”

Sgt. Nathan Cross contacted MacDonald to get all the information needed to fill out Workers Compensation Board forms for her injury.

MacDonald told him she’d injured her back at about 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, while helping to push a car stuck in snow.

A physiotherapy assessment on MacDonald’s file said she “twisted and tweaked back and fell to ground; next call they went to was mental health — belt was really heavy.”

‘Light duties’

An occupational therapy report dated May 10, 2022, recommended MacDonald return to work that week.

“From the day following her injury to her proposed return to light duties” MacDonald was off work for 516 hours, Payne said.

The WCB paid MacDonald $9,800 in salary while she was off work, and Nova Scotia’s provider of workplace injury insurance shelled out another $2,100 for her medical treatment.

“The defrauded party in this incident is the Nova Scotia Workers Compensation Board,” Payne said.

“It has been defrauded of approximately $11,900. It is my belief that there is evidence to support that (Const.) MacDonald was not injured at work as she claimed.”

‘Financial hardship’

He speculated that MacDonald’s “motive for saying she was injured at work is to avoid financial hardship.”

She only had 60 hours in her sick bank at the time of the injury, Payne said. “Once her sick bank is used up, she would not receive any pay,” Payne said.

At the time, MacDonald was dating another Halifax Regional Police officer, Const. Ryan Morris, with whom she owns a home in Cole Harbour that’s assessed at $440,300.

According to the city’s sunshine list, Morris, whose father also used to be a Halifax cop, earned $104,382 in the year that ended March 31, 2021. The following year, he earned $145,307.

MacDonald did not make the list of the city’s top earners.

Phone seized

Payne convinced a judge to grant a warrant to search MacDonald’s home for her personal cellphone, believing she’d used it to send Sgt. Cross “fraudulent information” while he was attempting to fill out her WCB forms.

Police seized an Apple iPhone 11 during an Aug. 17, 2022, search of her home.

MacDonald was suspended at some point during the months-long probe into her WCB claim.

But, according to the Public Prosecution Service, she is not facing any charges.

Force mum

And Halifax Regional Police didn’t have much to say about MacDonald when SaltWire asked where the investigation stands into her alleged fraud.

“It is not our practice to provide information in relation to a person that is part of a criminal investigation unless that person has been charged and the charges are laid before the courts,” Const. John MacLeod, who speaks for the force, said in an email

“It is also not our practice to provide information in relation to private personnel matters.”

MacDonald maintains she was injured at work in January 2022.

Officer responds

“Several months later, an allegation was made by a co-worker that her injury had not in fact occurred as she had described it,” MacDonald said in a written statement.

“That allegation was investigated as a criminal fraud matter by the HRP Criminal Investigative Division, and as a disciplinary default by the HRP Professional Standards Branch. Neither investigation yielded any evidence capable of sustaining a criminal charge against (Const.) MacDonald, or a disciplinary default under the Police Act. The criminal investigation concluded without charges and the disciplinary allegations arising from this matter were not sustained.”

MacDonald said she has recovered from her injuries and returned to her full duties as a patrol officer.

“The false allegations made against (Const.) MacDonald were unfortunate and harmful,” according to her written statement.

‘Better understand’

The allegations against her might never have come to public light, as Payne had convinced a judge to seal the search warrant and all its supporting documents indefinitely as their disclosure would compromise his investigation, as well as a police officer’s personal and medical information.

But the officer at the heart of the controversy convinced another judge this past fall to unseal the file.

In an email, MacDonald said she took that step “to better understand why she was targeted in this way, and to help her to consider her options for redress of the harm caused.”

MacDonald turned down an interview request for this story.

“I wish nothing more than to focus on the job I very much love and take pride in,” she said Friday in an email.