Corrections officer worked in facility with biker gang members but had associates with ties to same criminal gangs
Termination of employment was an appropriate level of discipline for a corrections officer who associated with criminal figures, a labour adjudicator has ruled.
Martin Lapostolle was a corrections officer at an institution in Saint-Anne-des-Plaines, Que. He was assigned to the regional reception centre, which was a maximum-security facility that receives inmates who are being assessed for placement in other institutions. This facility specifically handled offenders who could not be integrated into the general prison population, including dangerous offenders such as criminal biker gang members. As a result, security in the facility was sensitive and at a high level.
On Nov. 3, 2007, Lapostolle was found in a limousine with several individuals who had ties to criminal ventures. Corrections Canada (CSC) suspended him for one day and warned him any further offences could lead to more serious discipline and possibly termination.
On June 11, 2009, Lapostolle was a passenger in a car driven a strip club owner who had ties to the Hells Angels biker gang that was stopped by police. Police informed CSC of this as well as another incident less than a week later where Lapostolle was stopped in another car with the same individual. Lapostolle explained that the strip club owner was a childhood friend and he didn’t know of the man’s criminal ties, though the man clearly wore a Hells Angels medallion. CSC warned him corrections officers could not associate with people linked to organized crime, particularly those who worked at a facility that handled that type of criminal. It not only threatened CSC’s image, but put him at risk of threats and blackmail because he had access to sensitive information related to organized crime, said CSC. CSC once again warned Lapostolle he could be terminated if he continued to associate with such individuals.
Lapostolle took July 4 to 16, 2009, off to compete in a poker tournament in Las Vegas. To participate in the tournament, he received a $6,000 sponsorship from an individual who was known by police to have links to criminal contacts and was one of the people in the limousine with Lapostolle in 2007. Lapostolle appeared in a newspaper and on several websites about the tournament and wore a sweater with his sponsor’s name on it.
Lapostolle admitted he had a two-year sponsorship contract for playing in poker tournaments and he had been given $10,000 to cover the tournament entry fee. He said he had been approached for the sponsorship because he was a good poker player and knew where to draw the line, as he had been a corrections officer for 15 years without incident.
After an investigation, CSC determined that Lapostolle’s contacts in the criminal world from his poker sponsorship and earlier incidents were risking its security, undermining the public trust and he did not take the earlier warnings seriously. It terminated Lapostolle’s employment on Jan. 19, 2010.
Lapostolle argued that he was terminated for activities in his private life that should be private and he did not initially know that his friend or his poker sponsor had criminal ties at the time he associated with them. He also argued that none of his conduct was illegal or compromised CSC.
The adjudicator found that even though Lapostolle didn’t initially know of the criminal ties, CSC’s warnings and his friend’s medallion should have been enough to know his associations weren’t appropriate. Lapostolle also demonstrated “wilful ignorance” about his poker sponsor, who was associated with his strip club owner friend, said the adjudicator.
