A public hearing has been cancelled for a former Abbotsford Police officer who was fired for allegedly lying about how he crashed a patrol car.
The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) cancelled the hearing at the request of Const. Nathan Brown, who had previously asked for the session in order to fight his termination.
Brown, 31, was charged in October 2011 with obstructing a police officer.
It is alleged that on the evening of April 14, 2011, he drank alcohol in the lounge of the Abbotsford Police union building and then crashed into a pole while driving home in his assigned patrol car.
He allegedly informed his supervisors the next day that he had been in a collision on his way to work that morning.
On April 26 of that year, he supposedly admitted to senior officers that the crash had, in fact, taken place on the evening of April 14 and he had left the scene and returned the next day.
On March 16, 2012, an external discipline authority – New Westminster Police Chief Dave Jones – proposed that Brown be fired from the Abbotsford Police Department due to deceit and be given a 10-day suspension without pay for discreditable conduct.
Brown then requested, and was granted, the OPCC hearing. A date had not yet been set when Brown's lawyer sent a letter on Dec. 12 requesting that the hearing be cancelled.
Brown's criminal charge in the matter is slated to go to trial on Feb. 5 in Abbotsford.