A judge has acquitted an Ontario Provincial Police officer charged with the theft of a breathalyzer from the Elliot Lake detachment.
Superior Court Justice Michael Varpio found Glenn McLean not guilty of the charge Monday, bringing an end to court proceedings against the suspended constable that played out over several months.
When McLean's trial began last fall he faced 26 charges, including serious domestic violence offences, stemming from his relationship with Karen Querat and large frauds he was alleged to have committed with her.
He also was accused of stealing property from his employer, including an Intoxilyzer 5000 and less than five gallons of gas.
When the trial resumed in March, after a five-month break, the court continued to hear testimony from Querat, the prosecution's key witness.
In late April, Timmins assistant Crown attorney Wayne O'Hanley withdrew 23 of the charges, which involved the woman, indicating there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.
Eventually, following submissions from defence lawyer Bruce Willson, the Crown asked that the other counts, except for the alleged theft of the breathalyzer, be dismissed.
Varpio then heard evidence regarding that charge, and released his 14-page decision on Monday.
The court was told that McLean took an Intoxilyzer, a machine that measures the blood-alcohol concentration in a person's body, home from the detachment on or about Dec. 16, 2011.
The equipment had been decommissioned by the OPP two years earlier and replaced by another machine.
McLean, a qualified Intoxilyzer operator, decided to take the breathalyzer to his recreational hockey team's party, to allow people to blow into it.
The machine has a function known as a "party blow" that permits multiple people to use it.
After the party he stored it at his home, and it remained there even after McLean and his wife separated, and he moved out of the house in 2012.
When his ex-wife returned it to the detachment in November 2013, "no one at the detachment had noticed that Intoxilyzer in question was missing," Varpio noted in his decision.
In this portion of the trial, a number of officers from the detachment, as well as McLean and his ex-wife took the witness stand.
When he testified McLean maintained he didn't intend to steal the Intoxilyzer.
Varpio said the detachment at the time had a "loose culture" of permitting the personal use of OPP equipment.
In light of this, "McLean could reasonably have had an honestly-held belief that he was able to take the decommissioned Intoxilyzer home for an extended period of time," the judge said.
Varpio said he had "considerable difficulty" with McLean's testimony, including a lie he told one of his sergeants.
Nontheless, the judge said he found portions of McLean's evidence "are quite commonsensical."
Varpio questioned why would someone steal a piece of equipment, as noteworthy as the breathalyzer, and take it to a party attended by 30 people.
"This is especially true in a community the size of Elliot Lake, Ont., where, presumably, 'word' is liable to travel quickly," he said.
As McLean testified, someone who intended to steal the machine, would have been foolish to take it to a party where he would risk discovery, Varpio said.
The judge said McLean's insistence that he didn't intend to steal the breathalyzer, coupled with what he called the OPP inventory culture, has resonance.
"The plausible nature of his position — relative to this lax environment — gives me a reasonable doubt in the matter, despite concerns that I may otherwise have with Const. McLean's testimony," he concluded when he dismissed the charge.
