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North Vancouver RCMP staffer claims harassment

Woman testifies to alleged pattern of sexual conduct by Mountie

A woman who works as a civilian employee of the North Vancouver RCMP gave explosive testimony at an RCMP conduct hearing this week, alleging RCMP Staff Sgt. Travis Pearson forced her into a sexual relationship, stalked her and implied she would be harmed if she broke off her affair with him.

The woman, who still works at the North Vancouver detachment and whom hearing adjudicators asked not be named, gave details of the relationship that happened several years ago while Pearson was in charge of professional standards at the North Vancouver detachment.

The surprise witness was subpoenaed to the hearing this week by Larry McGonigal, the lawyer for Const. Susan Gastaldo, who along with Pearson, is accused of having sex in police cars and using RCMP Blackberries to send sexually suggestive messages while the two worked together in a special surveillance unit of the RCMP.

Gastaldo has told the hearing she was pressured into sex by Pearson, who used his power over her and veiled threats to continue the relationship.

This week, the North Vancouver woman testified to a similar pattern of behaviour while she worked under Pearson at that detachment.

The woman said Pearson repeatedly asked her to have sex and the two would meet up before and after work.

"If I hadn't seen him for a long time, he'd tell me he wanted to get together," she said.

She said Pearson would leave gifts on her desk, which she returned. "He told me he wanted me to leave my husband for him and he would leave his wife," she said.

The woman told adjudicators Pearson also stalked her by waiting outside her house in the dark. "He would text me and tell me he was sitting outside my house," she said. "I told him it was

very creepy."

The woman said Pearson had no reason to be in her neighbourhood. "I do not live on the route from his house to the detachment." She said the stalking happened five or six times.

She said she didn't report Pearson because "I knew it was against the law. I didn't want to get involved in anything."

She added another reason she didn't come forward is she was afraid of what might happen to her and her family.

"I wasn't prepared to take that risk," she said. She said she also didn't think a complaint would be taken seriously, because Pearson was well-connected with RCMP brass at the North Vancouver detachment. "I didn't think if I said anything to anyone in a higher rank - it wouldn't have gone anywhere," she said.

Asked by Pearson's lawyer, Const. James Roland, what then-RCMP Superintendent Gord Tomlinson would say if he was called to testify, she replied she didn't know.

The woman declined to comment further outside the hearing. Her husband, who listened to her testimony, appeared at times to be emotionally overcome.

Asked what her future intentions were, and whether she planned to file a lawsuit, the woman told adjudicators, "I'd like to try to heal with my family. We've been trying for the last number of years to move past this. It's an issue I tried to end years ago."

The hearing into the conduct of Gastaldo and Pearson is continuing.

A lawyer for Pearson has accused Gastaldo of lying about being coerced into sex, in order to cover up their affair.

The allegations about harassment levelled by the North Vancouver woman this week come after a former high-profile RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Catherine Galliford claimed she suffered years of sexual harassment from senior officers at a variety of detachments. Galliford's work with the RCMP included time at the North Vancouver detachment in the 1990s when some of the harassment is alleged to have taken place.

Newly-appointed RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson has vowed to deal with harassment in the workplace.

jseyd@nsnews.com