Suspended Victoria Police Chief Frank Elsner exchanged “salacious and sexually charged” Twitter messages with the wife of a subordinate officer over the course of six months, a Vancouver courtroom heard Tuesday.
It was also revealed that an internal investigator’s report into Frank Elsner’s conduct stated he admitted to sharing a hug and a kiss with the woman in his office.
The revelations came during day two of a hearing in which Elsner is seeking to quash a second, external investigation into his conduct, including 48 Twitter messages exchanged between him and the woman.
A key piece of information also came to light about the internal investigation, which was ordered by police board co-chairs Barb Desjardin, mayor of Esquimalt, and Lisa Helps, mayor of Victoria.
The investigator found there was an inappropriate relationship between Elsner and the officer’s wife, despite the fact that when the story went public last December, Desjardin said there was “no indication of an inappropriate relationship.”
A review of the first investigation by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner found “a number of problems” with the probe, Deputy Commissioner Rollie Woods said Monday.
“It didn’t examine all of the issues in the way we would normally expect them to be examined, so the commissioner disagreed with the way the investigation was conducted and the outcome,” he said.
Desjardins told CTV News she could not comment at this time.
The hearing also revealed how Elsner got caught exchanging the messages: Victoria Police’s communications department discovered them during a routine review of direct messages in the chief’s account.
The hearing is expected to wrap up on Thursday. The contents of the messages and the resulting internal investigation are the subject of a publication ban, which CTV is opposing in court. A ruling on the ban is expected after the hearing concludes.
With files from CTV Vancouver Island's Robert Buffam
