Vernon RCMP officer denies wrongdoing, claims he kissed coworker on cheek

The woman who alleges that Vernon North Okanagan RCMP Const. Shaun Miranda kissed her while at a staff Christmas party, wiped tears from her eyes as she explained at the RCMP Conduct Board hearing that she didn’t want the matter formally reported.

“I just wanted it to go away, I didn’t want to talk about it,” she said through tears. “I did not want to deal with this in any sort of way.”

Const. Miranda is alleged to have kissed his colleague at an RCMP Christmas party in November 2023 and is facing a single allegation that he behaved in a manner that is likely to discredit the RCMP, a contravention of the RCMP Code of Conduct.

A five-day court-style conduct hearing began in Vernon on Monday, Aug. 18.

The victim, whose name is covered under a publication ban, works at the RCMP detachment but is not a police officer. She said she was reluctant to report it because she didn’t want problems at work.

“It was a job I really wanted… (I) didn’t want to be a troublemaker,” she said. “I was embarrassed about how much I drank.”

The alleged incident took place at the home of two married RCMP officers who hosted the Christmas party.

There were around 20 people at the party, and Const. Miranda spent a lot of time behind the bar in the entertainment room, making his colleagues’ drinks.

The complainant testified she was very drunk, putting herself at a seven out of 10 scale of intoxication.

Sometime during the evening, she said she was coming out of the bathroom and Const. Miranda was in front of her.

“It startled me,” she said. “He was right in the doorway… he just put his lips on my lips and stuck his tongue into my mouth.”

She panicked and pushed past him and headed back into the party, and didn’t mention it to anyone that night.

“I told myself I’m not saying anything right at this moment,” she said.

The hearing heard about how drunk the complainant was, and how she didn’t understand on the ride home why the music she was playing on her phone wasn’t coming out of the car’s speakers. She was told it wasn’t her car, so her phone wasn’t connected to the Bluetooth. She didn’t understand and asked multiple times. She also wanted to go to Vernon’s Status nightclub, but instead went home.

The following day she told her spouse, who is an RCMP officer and was at the party. He was good friends with Const. Miranda and was furious.

Various testimonies painted a picture that the Vernon RCMP officers are a close-knit community inside and outside of work. Many officers were good friends with each other and socialized outside the detachment – several had married other officers. Many of the officers had been to Const. Miranda’s wedding a few months beforehand.

The allegation clearly sent ripples through the detachment. The complainant said she grappled with what to do.

“I just wanted it to go away and pretend it didn’t happen,” she said.

But after a couple of weeks, her partner confronted Const. Miranda.

From there, it was formally reported and Const. Miranda was suspended.

Const. Miranda’s version of events is quite different.

He testified that the complainant had hugged him and given him a kiss on the cheek, which he reciprocated.

“The truth of the matter is that you wanted to get her alone,” the Conduct Board lawyer said.

Const. Miranda denied the accusation.

“I had no intention or knowledge she was in the bathroom,” Const. Miranda replied.

Under cross-examination, the RCMP Conduct Board lawyer highlighted numerous inaccuracies between the original statement Const. Miranda gave to the RCMP and what he said on the stand.

While Const. Miranda testified in detail that he’d hugged the complainant, in his original police statement all he said was that he “may have” hugged her.

It was also revealed that there were other allegations against Const. Miranda put forward in his original police interview. What these allegations were wasn’t explained.

Const. Miranda defended the inaccuracies, saying he was nervous and embarrassed.

“I felt attacked… all these rumours about things,” he said.

The lawyers pulled up more inconsistencies in Const. Miranda’s testimony, questioning why he’d said he wasn’t drinking, when he’d had two rum and Cokes and two shots.

Const. Miranda replied, saying he said he “wasn’t drinking” because he was sober enough to drive home.

“We are getting inconsistent answers,” the lawyer said.

The hearing is scheduled to continue.

None of the allegations have been proven.