Cop who fired 9 bullets during domestic dispute gets probation

Cop who fired 9 bullets during domestic dispute gets probation
Date: Feb 8, 2007 2:15 PM
PUBLICATION: The Chronicle-Herald
DATE: 2007.02.08
SECTION: Front
PAGE: A1
BYLINE: Beverley Ware; Patricia Brooks Arenburgstaff Reporters
ILLUSTRATION: Const. Adree Zahara was placed on probation for a
yearWednesday after she pleaded guilty to a charge of careless use of a
firearm. (Beverley Ware / South Shore Bureau)
WORD COUNT: 741

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Judge: Mountie's meltdown just a blip; Cop who fired 9 bullets during
domestic dispute gets probation

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BRIDGEWATER - A Mountie who had "a bit of a meltdown" and fired nine
bullets from her service pistol into the wall of her home has been put
on probation for a year and will have no criminal record so she can
continue what the judge called "an exemplary career."

Const. Adree Zahara won't have to perform community service as
prosecutor Chris Nicholson requested because Judge Anne Crawford said
Const. Zahara, as a police officer and single mother, already gives back
to the community every day.

The judge also imposed a two-year ban on possessing weapons rather than
the 10-year ban Mr. Nicholson asked for, saying the lesser term would
still be a deterrent but would allow Const. Zahara to continue her
career.

The two-year ban applies only when Const. Zahara isn't working. She is
allowed to carry a gun at work.

"The public interest is best served here by allowing a good officer to
continue her career," Judge Crawford said as she agreed to the joint
recommendation from the Crown and defence for a conditional discharge
and a year on probation.

But RCMP spokesman Sgt. Frank Skidmore said Const. Zahara will not be
given her semi-automatic handgun back, at least until an internal
investigation is finished. He said her future with the RCMP is far from
certain.

Mr. Nicholson said Const. Zahara is now doing administrative work for
the RCMP's violent crime linkage analysis system, or VICLAS, in Bedford.


The prosecutor said outside court he wanted a longer firearms ban and
community service.

"I thought it would be important for Const. Zahara to have the
opportunity to give something back to the community for what she did,
for her serious lapse in judgment here," he said.

But the judge did agree with the joint recommendation for a conditional
discharge, saying "anything other than a conditional sentence would be
grossly out of proportion to the offence." She said Const. Zahara was
under considerable stress at the time and did not put anyone at risk.

Both Mr. Nicholson and defence lawyer David Bright denied that Const.
Zahara was given special treatment.

Mr. Bright said he has worked on cases involving military members who
received a work exemption to a weapons ban.

He said Const. Zahara has an "extraordinarily good record" at work. Both
he and Mr. Nicholson said her sentence reflects her work as an RCMP
officer and as a volunteer in the community, her remorse and the
positive statements that senior officers made in her presentence report.


Last week, two senior RCMP officers spoke to The Chronicle Herald on
condition of anonymity. They said they thought Const. Zahara was getting
preferential treatment, both in the criminal case and the internal
investigation, and that it was damaging to the rank-and-file members and
the public's perception of the RCMP.

"Their credibility is totally destroyed," one veteran officer said of
RCMP management and the force's handling of the investigation. "She
should have no credibility as a police officer. Period."

Const. Zahara's work with the VICLAS unit, at full pay, is a job that
"80 per cent of front-line officers would give their you-know-what to
have," one officer said.

The officers were appalled that Const. Zahara fired her pistol into a
wall nine times in a domestic dispute, not only because of the safety
training they receive but also in light of the types of violent offences
many officers have witnessed.

The two senior Mounties who spoke with The Herald said other officers
have been forced out of the RCMP over court convictions, even if the
sentence was a conditional discharge. Others are being subjected to
polygraph tests to determine who is downloading music from the Internet,
one said.

"And they let something like this go by? It's a farce, that's the bottom
line," the officer said.

Bridgewater Police Chief Brent Crowhurst used to be Const. Zahara's
supervisor when he was a Mountie. He told the court that the policing
community admired and respected her and that he has no concerns about
anything like this ever happening again.

Mr. Nicholson said the shooting incident came to light when Const. Chuck
Simm reported it to his detachment on Oct. 16. Const. Simm had been
living common law with Const. Zahara and their three-year-old son until
a few months before.

He said that on Oct. 15, Const. Zahara invited him to her home in
Chester Grant to talk about their son and they got into an argument. He
was working and in uniform. Const. Zahara was also in uniform, getting
ready for her 4 p.m. shift.

Mr. Nicholson said Const. Zahara got "very upset," went into her room
and started smashing things. Const. Simm reported that he heard a
gunshot, followed by several other shots. He kicked in the door and took
her gun until she calmed down, then gave it back to her and she went to
work.

When she didn't report the incident, he did.




The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !