Manitoba Crown prosecutors are asking the Supreme Court of Canada to consider an appeal of the sentence handed to an ex-Thompson RCMP officer convicted of criminal negligence causing bodily harm in 2019.
An application to appeal the sentence to Canada’s highest court was filed in September, a couple of months after Manitoba’s Court of Appeal ruled that the sentence given to Abraham Letkeman for his actions during a November 2015 police pursuit that ended with him fatally shooting Steven Campbell was not sufficient punishment.
In documents filed with the Supreme Court, prosecutors Chris Vanderhooft and Ashleigh Smith said that sentences like Letkeman’s reinforce the public opinion that there is a separate justice system for police officers, according to a report by the CBC.
Letkeman’s lawyer Josh Weinstein said in his reply to the application to appeal that the error by the trial judge was already corrected on appeal and that the ruling that he should have served jail time was sufficient denunciation of his actions. Weinstein argued the issue was not one of national or public importance, according to the CBC.
Letkeman received three years probation, 240 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine at a January 2020 sentencing hearing in Thompson.
The conviction stemmed from a Nov. 21, 2015 incident when Letkeman twice hit a Jeep being driven by Steven Campbell with his police cruiser before exiting the vehicle and fatally shooting Campbell as the Jeep came towards him.
Letkeman was found not guilty of manslaughter and other charges related to Campbell’s shooting death after a trial in Thompson in June 2019.
The former Mountie, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder which resulted in his being dismissed from the force, was also prohibited from driving for one year
Manitoba’s appeals court said in July that Letkeman should have been sentenced to 10 months in jail for hitting the vehicle Campbell was driving, including ramming it from the side while it was stationary, which caused neck and pelvis injuries to one of the passengers. However, the court reduced that amount to three months in light of community service already performed and the fine paid and stayed the custodial portion of the sentence, saying it would serve no purpose to have Letkeman go to jail more than a year after his conviction and over five years since the incident took place.
One of the three appeals judges dissented, saying three years in prison, the sentence sought by the Crown at trial, would have been fitting and that it was inappropriate to stay the custodial portion of the new sentence.
The Supreme Court hasn’t yet decided whether to hear the appeal. If it decides not to, reasons for the decision are not usually provided.
