A\u00a0Calgary police officer has been fired\u00a0after he tried to start an unwanted and\u00a0“predatory” relationship with a young woman who had just tried to kill herself, sending her up to a hundred text messages\u00a0in four days while she lay recovering in hospital\u00a0and dropping by her home uninvited.<\/p>\n
CBC News has obtained a copy of the\u00a0decision by retired Calgary Police Service superintendent Paul Manuel\u00a0to\u00a0fire Const. Dave Pizzolato\u00a0for discreditable conduct.\u00a0Pizzolato is only the third officer in more than two decades to be terminated from CPS.<\/p>\n The decision, which came after a\u00a0CPS disciplinary hearing in September, describes Pizzolato’s conduct as “reprehensible” as well as “predatory and exploitive” toward an\u00a0“extremely vulnerable” woman.<\/p>\n Pizzolato \u2014 a 22-year veteran of the force \u2014 was terminated by the CPS last week, although he has\u00a030 days to appeal.<\/p>\n In September, Pizzolato\u00a0pleaded guilty to discreditable conduct and insubordination before the hearing.<\/p>\n The young woman at the centre of the\u00a0case\u00a0was referred to in the decision as “Ms. M.”<\/p>\n She is a sexual assault survivor who was also a victim of human trafficking.\u00a0She operates at the level of someone between the ages of 14 and 16 and was victimized for most of her childhood, the document\u00a0states.<\/p>\n In 2016, she tried to kill herself and a friend called 911.\u00a0Pizzolato responded.<\/p>\n The woman was 22 at the time and Pizzolato was\u00a048.<\/p>\n The woman was taken to hospital, where she spent several days.<\/p>\n Over the four days, M was in hospital, Pizzolato sent her 75 to 100 text messages from his personal cellphone, calling her “hon,” “sweety” and “sweetness.”<\/p>\n Hours after she tried to kill herself,\u00a0Pizzolato\u00a0wrote,\u00a0“I would really love to see you again\u2026.\u00a0I feel your pain! I really do!”<\/p>\n The texts were\u00a0“too familiar, too suggestive, inappropriate, unsolicited, unwanted and wholly unprofessional,” wrote Manuel.<\/p>\n M showed the messages to hospital staff who were so concerned that\u00a0they contacted the police force.<\/p>\n At one point over the four days she was in hospital, M sent a message back to Pizzolato in an effort to get him to stop.<\/p>\n “BTW, my mentor from the Boys and Girls club saw my texts with you and thought I should make it clear that I’m only interested in the resources,” wrote M. “I hope that you weren’t interpreting this differently.”<\/p>\n Yet, Pizzolato continued to message.<\/p>\n And then the constable turned up at her home.<\/p>\n On the day she was released from hospital,\u00a0Pizzolato showed up at M’s\u00a0apartment and took her for ice cream.<\/p>\n She later told investigators she felt pressured to go with him and “scared about what he might do to her” if she didn’t.<\/p>\n The woman told police said she didn’t feel safe and didn’t know what to do.<\/p>\n The two\u00a0parked with their ice creams and Pizzolato\u00a0told her about his ex-wife. He said she could take a ride with him on his\u00a0motorcycle one day.<\/p>\n He touched her on the arm and put his hand on her leg.<\/p>\n She said the conversation made her feel “creepy.”<\/p>\n “I was confused because sometimes he acted like a police officer and sometimes\u00a0he acted like he wanted to date me,” M told investigators.<\/p>\n “I was scared and didn’t feel safe and didn’t know what to do.”<\/p>\n Hospital staff found out about Pizzolato’s visit and contacted CPS to have an officer check on the woman.<\/p>\n When Pizzolato returned\u00a0to the woman’s apartment to drop her off, he spotted the marked patrol car and let her out at the side of her building.<\/p>\n The officer’s conduct was even more egregious because he’d done the same thing with other women he met on-duty and\u00a0just two weeks earlier, his staff sergeant warned him to stop.<\/p>\n Pizzolato\u00a0also had a history of bungling investigations.<\/p>\n In 2014, he labelled a file involving an 11-year-old sexual assault victim “inactive.” Twice, he was told to do more work on the case but he kept closing\u00a0the file. Eventually, it was handed over to another officer.<\/p>\n In April 2016, Pizzolato failed to properly investigate a car prowling\/vandalism complaint, which Manuel called “a [sheer]\u00a0neglect of duty.”<\/p>\n The CPS disciplined him for both incidents.<\/p>\n Manuel wrote that Pizzolato was a good “reactive police officer” when he was responding to calls “where there is little to no investigation or followup required.”<\/p>\n Pizzolato\u00a0also faces allegations of criminal wrongdoing.<\/p>\n Last year, he was charged with assault\u00a0after the arrest of a man in downtown Calgary in\u00a02016.<\/p>\n A trial took place last month with a judge set to deliver a decision in December.<\/p>\n The officer’s lawyer,\u00a0Greg Dunn, argued his client crossed a line, acted inappropriately and showed a “lack of self-restraint,” but said Pizzolato “wears his heart on his sleeve.”<\/p>\n “I honestly thought that I was the only person that was going to make a difference in her life,” Pizzolato said at the hearing.<\/p>\n “My judgment was askew by my caring for her and having a bond with her that I felt.”<\/p>\n Ultimately, though,\u00a0Manuel found Pizzolato’s actions “clearly demonstrate that he is not suitable to hold the office of police officer.”<\/p>\n “In society, police officers are held to a higher standard. Police officers are professionals; people who are honest and trustworthy and of the highest moral standards. They are expected to be leaders in our community and to set an example. Constable Pizzolato has broken this public trust and when one police officer breaks that trust, it is left to all police officers and the police service to earn that trust back.<\/p>\n “His usefulness as an employee of the service has been annulled.”<\/p>\n Dunn confirmed\u00a0Pizzolato will appeal the decision.<\/p>\n CBC<\/p>\nThe victim<\/h2>\n
‘Suggestive, inappropriate’ texts<\/h2>\n
Pizzolato pays ‘creepy’ visit to her home<\/h2>\n
‘I was scared’<\/h2>\n
Pizzolato faces assault charge<\/h2>\n
‘My judgment\u00a0was askew by my caring for her’<\/h2>\n