VANCOUVER -- Authorities quietly laid two domestic violence charges against a Vancouver police officer late last year, CTV News has learned — prompting concern from critics that a battle against higher rates of domestic violence among law enforcement may be far from over.
Const. Neil Logan, who is on extended leave, faces charges of assault and uttering threats against a woman for an incident dating back to March 2014, according to court documents.
That’s three years before he was found in a police misconduct proceeding to have broken a windshield with his fists and assaulted his ex-girlfriend Alyssa Leblevec five times in a trip to Oregon in 2017.
Logan didn’t face any American charges then because the district attorney decided there was late reporting and a cross-border prosecution would be too difficult.
Leblevec complained, and initial discipline first recommended punishment including a 15-day suspension without pay, and then a six-day suspension without pay.
B.C.’s police complaint commissioner blasted Vancouver police investigators for failing to take the case, and the girlfriend’s testimony, seriously. He commissioned a retired judge to examine the case, who came away with a finding Logan had assaulted her.
Critics say law enforcement of all stripes haven’t dealt with higher rates of domestic violence among members.
Some 40 per cent of law enforcement families have domestic violence against female partners or children, said Angela Marie MacDougall of Battered Women’s Support Services.
“It’s an epidemic — it’s much harder to wrap our heads around,” MacDougall said, blaming a cultural problem.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is recommending that the mandate of one of B.C.’s police watchdogs, the IIO, be expanded to include all police officer involved domestic abuse.
“That’s very disturbing, especially when we’re counting on these members to investigate domestic violence in the public,” said Meghan McDermott of the BCCLA.
Logan also is awaiting the results of another misconduct probe that examines his and another officer’s role in responding to a domestic violence allegation that left a Vancouver engineer seriously injured.
The most recent charges stemmed from an investigation the Surrey RCMP say began in June 2020. There has been no finding of guilt in that case.
Neighbours and the RCMP said that Logan had been arrested by the Vancouver police on Tuesday in another unrelated matter.
It’s not clear what that other arrest relates to. The VPD didn’t answer questions about the arrest and Logan’s criminal lawyers didn’t return calls.
