EPS officer charged with sexual assault followed, groped woman, lawsuit alleges
CBC
An Edmonton police officer charged with sexual assault is accused of following a woman home from a gas station and forcibly groping her while he was on duty, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this year.
Alberta’s police watchdog announced Thursday that Edmonton Police Service Const. Renzo Geronimo had been charged with sexual assault, breach of trust, unlawful confinement and being unlawfully in a dwelling house. The investigation started in September 2023.
In April, a statement of claim was filed naming former EPS chief Dale McFee and an officer, identified in the lawsuit only as “John Doe.” The lawsuit is seeking $1.5 million damages.
James Raworth, lawyer for the woman who filed the suit, said Friday that he and his client were informed about the criminal charges on Wednesday, and that they are related to the same circumstances in the civil suit. At the time the statement of claim was filed, he said they didn’t know the officer’s full name.
CBC is not identifying the woman because she is a complainant in a sexual assault case.
“My client is relieved to finally have had something happen,” Raworth said.
“These things take time — I appreciate that.… But two years of wondering whether people are going to believe her, two years of wondering whether or not she's going to see this officer again, two years of just not knowing and dealing with this unresolved, has been a tremendous burden for her.”
The criminal charges against Geronimo have not been proven and the allegations in the separate statement of claim have not been tested in court.
A statement of defence hasn’t been filed in the case. A spokesperson for EPS said that was part of an agreement with the plaintiff. This was confirmed by Raworth, who said proceedings were paused while they waited for a decision on whether charges would be laid.
According to the statement of claim, the woman was fuelling her car at a south-side gas station on the afternoon of Aug. 27, 2023, where there was also a marked EPS cruiser. When she left, the cruiser followed her, and the officer activated the car’s police lights.
In the statement, the woman alleges that when she pulled over, the officer told her that she was speeding and swerving, which she denies.
The lawsuit says she handed over her documents and called her mother while the officer inspected them. When he came back from his vehicle, he took her phone and told the woman’s mother he’d drive behind her “to make sure she got home all right.”
Once they were at the house, the officer allegedly parked behind the woman, blocking her car, and asked to come inside to say hello to her mother. The complainant “believed she had no choice,” so she let him in, the statement of claim says.
After the woman’s mother said hi from upstairs, where she had been having a shower, the officer asked to be shown around the house. The statement of claim says the woman resisted, but the officer “demanded” to go to the basement.
Missing baby presumed dead after father charged with killing mother in St. Albert, Alta., police say
A man is facing charges in the death of a young mother in the Edmonton area and the presumed death of their missing nine-month-old daughter.
A school trustee in Prince George, B.C., says she's shaken and scared after being surrounded by police with their guns drawn and then put in handcuffs, in what RCMP say was a case of mistaken identity.
Despite an eleventh hour attempt to secure at least a few more weeks of freedom, a Calgary dentist was handed a three-year prison sentence for a decade-long insurance billing fraud.
Canada Computers & Electronics says a data breach has leaked information about some of its customers, though several say they are unhappy with the scant details the retailer has provided — including how many of them were affected, and when the breach occurred.
The city of Toronto is shutting down a yacht club on the Humber River in Etobicoke that is accused of having negative impacts on the local ecosystem.
Some public safety experts say the N.W.T. government’s failure to regulate the security profession and mandate training for guards is putting people at risk.
U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to slap a 50 per cent tariff on Canadian aircraft and says his administration will "decertify" planes made by Canadian aerospace company Bombardier.
A new non-stop route between Calgary and Abu Dhabi is set to launch later this year, becoming the only direct flight from Western Canada to the United Arab Emirates.
U.S. authorities alerted the RCMP about Ryan Wedding's imminent arrest days before he was taken into U.S. custody in Mexico last week, Commissioner Mike Duheme has told CBC News.
Ontario’s police watchdog says it is not investigating the case of a lawyer who is alleging that multiple Durham Regional Police Service officers slammed her head on a desk without provocation and dragged her to the basement cells of the Oshawa courthouse last week.
Warning: This story deals with suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, you can find resources for help at the bottom of this story.
Shilo Nosyk was camping with friends and family last summer in Alberta's Elbow-Sheep Wildland Provincial Park when her then-15-year-old son's throat started to close.
Daniel Martell, the stepfather of two Nova Scotia children who disappeared nearly nine months ago, has been charged with sexual assault, assault and forcible confinement, CBC News has learned.