2 Cape Breton officers disciplined over arrest of Christopher Garnier

Two Cape Breton Regional Police officers have been disciplined for the way they handled the arrestof Christopher Garnieron allegations he breached release conditions while awaiting trial for the death off an off-duty police officer.

In adecision released Tuesday, the Nova Scotia Police Review Boardfound constables Dennis MacSween and Troy Walkershould have obtained a warrant before placing Garnier under arrest. The board cleared two other officers of wrongdoing.

Garnier was charged in September 2015 in the killingof Catherine Campbell, a constable with the police department in Truro, N.S.The two had met at a Halifax bar. Garnier waseventually convicted of second-degree murder.

Garnier was free on conditions while awaiting trial on the murder charge. His conditions included that he stay at either his father's condo in Bedford, N.S., or his mother's home in Cape Breton.

Police checks

On Feb. 17, 2017, a Halifax Regional Police officer checked at the Garnier residence in Bedford to see if he was there. He was not. Garnier had left a message for Halifax police, telling them of his plans to visit his mother. For some reason, that message did not get through to the officer.

Since Garnierwasn't at his father's residence, Halifax police contacted their counterparts in Cape Breton, asking that they check at the home of his mother, Kim Edmunds, in Millville, N.S.

An officer knocked on the door of Edmunds' home at 1 a.m. on Feb. 18. There was no answer.

Officers were sent back to the Edmunds residence at 10 p.m. that night. They took pictures of the entrances to the home and placed Garnier under arrest for allegedly breaching his release conditions.

Garnier was transported back to Halifax and held in custody until a hearing in April 2017, at which point the breach charges against him were dismissed.

Complaint taken to police board

Garnier's family, represented by his father, Vince Garnier, complained about the conduct of four Cape Breton Regional Police officers who went to the Edmunds property to take photographs and place Garnier under arrest.

In Tuesday's decision, the police review board found MacSween and Walker committed a disciplinary default by not obtaining a warrant before the arrest, and ordered they be reprimanded for breaching a section of the code of conduct of the Police Act.

The board foundGarnier was denied his freedom for almost two months before a justice of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court dismissed the breach charges.

Garnier was subsequently found guilty in Campbell's death and is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 13 years. He was also convicted of improperly interfering with human remains for placing Campbell's body in a green bin and wheeling it through the streets of Halifax.