A St. Albert man and former RCMP investigator is contemplating legal actions against his accusers, citing an unjustified prosecution after virtually all the charges against him were withdrawn.
Kelly Tony John Gulaga, a former corporal with the RCMP's major case squad, was charged with various criminal charges in September 2009, including several counts of assault, forcible confinement and a single weapons offence.
Gulaga was still an RCMP officer at the time and the charges were investigated by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, (ASIRT) a group of officers specifically set up to investigate complaints against the police and criminal charges against police officers.
Most of those charges were removed in June 2010, when a specifically assigned Crown prosecutor made an appearance at the St. Albert courthouse. The charges were withdrawn after a lengthy delay when ASIRT investigators themselves came under scrutiny for their conduct.
Gulaga pleaded guilty to a single weapons charge in January 2011. He had a restricted weapon, which he was authorized to have, but was not allowed to have it at his office where he had it at the time.
He received a conditional discharge for that offence, which should leave him without a criminal record.
Formal complaints
Gulaga's lawyer Tom Engel said his client has lodged formal complaints against ASIRT and the RCMP for their handling of the case.
ASIRT is made up of officers from several police agencies in the province as well as civilian investigators. In this case, the investigators and the woman who made the complaint against Gulaga were all Edmonton police officers.
As a result, ASIRT made the decision to send the complaints back to the Edmonton Police Service (EPS).
EPS spokesperson, Chad Orydzuk said the complaints Gulaga brought forward are still being looked into by the department's professional standards branch. Since the investigation is ongoing there is little the department could discuss about the incident, he said.
Engel said Gulaga does not believe EPS should be investigating its own officers, even if they were working for ASIRT at the time.
"If you send it to ASIRT in the first place because it is a serious matter and you don't want it investigated by EPS, why would you then send back the investigation about the investigation to EPS? It doesn't make sense."
In addition to the investigation, there will be a civil suit, Engel added.
"He intends to sue. It is just a matter of when, not if."
