Mountie gave false information to gain access to Yellowknife home

Documents recently obtained by the CBC reveal disturbing details into a former Yellowknife RCMP constable's conduct 12 years ago.

In December 2005, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP found Const. Chris Kosmenko improperly gained access to the home of a Yellowknife family in 2003 by giving false information to social services about the welfare of children inside the home.

Kosmenko, who has since been promoted to corporal, now works as an RCMP officer in Calgary.

The commission says the report was never released to the public because of "privacy concerns." The CBC obtained the report independently.

A spokesperson for the commission told CBC it only releases reports on issues that are "already in the public domain," such as the RCMP's handling of the 2013 High River flood. Complaints brought about by individuals are rarely released to the public.

'They are completely out of touch'

"I'm just frankly astounded that the body that is in charge of civilian oversight of the RCMP in this country would not think that this was a public concern," says Tom Engel, an Edmonton lawyer who represented the Yellowknife family.

"The commission, if that's their attitude, then they are completely out of touch with the public."

The details of the commission's findings were first reported last week in a BuzzFeed investigation that uncovered Kosmenko's actions.

In the report obtained by the CBC, Kosmenko and two other officers went to a family's home to arrest a teen who had breached a bail condition to keep the peace by getting in a fight at school.

While the teen's mother and sister were inside the home, Kosmenko and the other officers spoke to the father outside. The man told the officers that his son was away in Fort Simpson for the weekend and he would bring him into the detachment on Monday.

In a complaint to RCMP, the man says Kosmenko demanded the father produce his son "right then and there."

He says Kosmenko threatened to charge him with obstruction of justice and disturbing the peace. A few minutes later, the man left the home to go to the family's store in downtown Yellowknife.

According to the commission's report, Kosmenko and another officer then looked in the windows of the home. Kosmenko told the other officer that he had seen young children alone inside the home and he "feared for their safety."

The other officer says he told Kosmenko that, when he looked through the window, he saw adults inside the home.

'No, you didn't'

The officer says Kosmenko turned to him and said, "No, you didn't", and repeated the phrase twice.

The commission's report says Kosmenko then called social services and told them there were young unsupervised children in the home.

Social services came to the residence and entered the home with an officer through an unlocked back door.

When they found the children were, in fact,  supervised by adults, employees with social services and the RCMP officer left.

A week later, the father made a complaint to the Yellowknife RCMP detachment about Kosmenko's actions.

The officer in charge of the Yellowknife detachment concluded Kosmenko had breached the RCMP Act by giving false information to social services so that officers could enter the home. The commander told the family that Kosmenko would be dealt with using "internal disciplinary action."

The family, not satisfied with the RCMP's response, asked for the commission to review the complaint.

The commission agreed with the Yellowknife detachment's findings. Its report recommended Kosmenko apologize to the family. Engel says the family received an apology from the head of the N.W.T. RCMP, not Kosmenko.

'Serious lies'

Looking back, Engel says that just wasn't enough.

"This is a case of serious lies made by an RCMP officer and it's astounding that he wasn't fired.

"I think if you did a poll in downtown Yellowknife and said 'would you be concerned if an officer in this community lied in order to obtain entry into a private residence' the answer would obviously be 'well duh, yes. Of course it would be of concern.'"

The family launched a civil suit against the RCMP in 2005 and asked for $150,000 in damages from Kosmenko's actions. The case was settled out of court.

The CBC tried to contact Kosmenko for comment. The calls were not returned.