Probe clears military police in case of pilot charged with sexual assault who took his own life
An almost two-year-long internal investigation into how military police handled the criminal case of an air force officer who took his own life after being charged with sexual assault has cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing, CBC News has learned.
The report by the Office of Professional Standards of the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, dated Feb. 9, 2024, concluded that complaints made by the family of Maj. Cristian Hiestand were “not substantiated.”
The officers involved insist that their investigation was not conducted hastily.
Hiestand was charged with two counts of sexual assault in the late fall of 2021, days after he’d ended a tumultuous, short-term relationship with a civilian woman.
The charges were laid by military police in provincial court in Saskatchewan less than a week after he broke off the relationship and within five days of authorities receiving a complaint from the civilian woman in question.
CBC News first profiled the Hiestand case 18 months ago.
His family members claimed that the military police investigation was rushed. They said the investigating officers failed to talk with Hiestand or look at text messages he exchanged with the woman he was accused of sexually assaulting on two occasions — information he claimed would exonerate him.
According to the family, military police officers told Hiestand they had enough evidence to charge him and didn’t need to interrogate him.
Hiestand took his own life on Jan. 18, 2022, a little more than a month after being arrested. A military board of inquiry concluded last year that Hiestand, a pilot instructor at the airbase in Moose Jaw, Sask., was deemed by medical staff as a “moderate” suicide risk, but there was little formal follow-up by his superiors.
WARNING: This story contains distressing details. Maj. Cristian Hiestand’s family says he never got a chance to defend himself after he was accused of sexual assault, and then killed himself. Now, the Department of National Defence is probing the conduct of a military police officer who led the investigation into Hiestand. (If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide — call Talk Suicide Canada at 1-833-456-4566 or text 45645 between 4 pm and midnight eastern time.)
The Military Police Complaints Commission (MPCC), an independent watchdog agency, indicated last year it was prepared to conduct its own separate investigation into how Hiestand’s case was handled once the military’s professional standards review was completed.
The commission received three complaints — two from Hiestand’s family and a third from a former military officer who at the time was serving at the military police detachment that handled Hiestand’s case.
The internal professional standards review found that Hiestand’s interrogation by military police lasted a little more than four minutes and was captured on video.
The “investigator did not observe any ‘overwhelming evidence’ from Maj. Hiestand that may cause a reasonable officer in like circumstances” to consider not charging him, said the report, obtained by CBC News.
It noted that Hiestand “was offered multiple opportunities to provide a statement during custody and was provided means to contact investigators at a later time if he changed his mind.” The report acknowledged, however, that his lawyer had told him not to provide a statement.
The report makes no reference to — or even mention — the family’s allegation that military police told Hiestand they had enough evidence to lay a charge.
Instead, the report notes that the investigation continued almost to the moment of Hiestand’s death and that military officers examined text messages on the complainant’s phone in a “preliminary manner” before ordering a deeper forensic examination of all of the exchanges.
‘It’s a snow job,’ says family’s lawyer
Lt.-Commander Jamie Bresolin, a spokesperson for the provost marshal, defended the review, saying it concluded investigators believed they had the “reasonable grounds to believe an offence had been committed” required by the Criminal Code and case law.
“Police officers can lay charges as soon as they obtain their reasonable and probable grounds to believe an offence was committed and continue with their investigation thereafter,” he said in an email statement.
The internal review also doesn’t address separate allegations — made to the MPCC by a former military cop — that investigators in the Hiestand case allowed an unidentified man to sit in on the questioning of the complainant.
Bresolin said the reviewer can only look at allegations provided during the conduct complaint process.
The lawyer for the family, retired lieutenant-colonel Rory Fowler, said there are a lot of holes in the internal professional services review.
“It’s a snow job,” he said. “The military police are protecting their own and more importantly, protecting the supposed integrity of their institution by conducting really a superficial examination from a professional standards perspective.”
