BC Mountie accused of dangerous driving, uttering threats, acquitted by RCMP Board

A BC Mountie accused of driving erratically after fleeing from his wife when she caught him having an affair has been acquitted of all the allegations he was facing.

BC RCMP Const. Amarinder Grewal stood accused of discreditable conduct by driving dangerously while the woman he was having an affair with was in the passenger seat of his truck. The Surrey-based Mountie was also accused of threatening his mistress to release explicit photographs he had of her.

The recently published Aug. 28 RCMP Conduct Board Authority decision says the RCMP alleged that the Mountie’s behaviour had discredited the police force.

However, the RCMP Conduct Board found that while Const. Grewal’s committed two driving offences, he did not endanger anyone with his actions, and his conduct wasn’t discreditable.

The Conduct Board also found that the Mountie had only threatened to sue his mistress after she found out he was married by checking his medical record at the hospital where she worked.

The decision said Const. Grewal was married with two children when he started having an affair with the unnamed woman in 2020.

The affair lasted about 18 months and throughout out that time the Mountie told his mistress he wasn’t married.

However, he ended up in hospital following a car crash and his mistress was working there as a nursing unit assistant.

She looked up his medical records and found his wife listed as his next of kin.

“(She) became quite upset when she realized that she had been ‘played’ for a year and a half,” the Conduct Board said in the decision.

The situation came to a head when, months later, he arranged to meet his mistress in a parking lot.

However, the mistress, or a friend of hers, had tipped the wife off that they would be there.

The mistress, who is the complainant in the case, claimed that when Const. Grewal saw his wife’s car, he sped off, driving on the wrong side of the road and causing vehicles to pull off the road.

He cut off more vehicles as he took a sudden right turn, before he stopped his truck and his mistress got out.

She alleged he then threatened her.

“I’m going to make sure to make your life hell… You don’t know who I know,” he is alleged to have said. “I know where you live, I know where you work, I know what you drive, I know where your grandma lives.”

The mistress went to the police days later and Const. Grewal was charged with uttering threats. The decision said the file was later concluded under the Alternative Measures provision, where he accepted responsibility and didn’t get a criminal record.

The RCMP Conduct Authority then took action, which could have resulted in the Mountie being fired.

However, the Conduct Authority found much of the complainant’s testimony unreliable.

“(Her) evidence was neither credible nor was her evidence reliable for the most part,” the board said.

“She was evasive and combative… it was difficult to ascertain whether her inadequate responses or her refusal to respond to some questions was because she was tired or because she was being obstructive. I believe it was a combination of both tending toward the latter,” the decision reads.

The Board said some of her evidence was “vague and lacked details.”

The decision said the mistress, who at the time of the hearing was training to become an RCMP officer, was reluctant to attend the Conduct Board hearing and threatened to get a lawyer to prevent her from appearing in person.

“A senior officer at Depot had to intervene and rightfully instruct her that she was required to attend the Conduct Hearing in accordance with the summons,” the decision reads.

In contrast, the Conduct Authority had no issue with the RCMP officer’s testimony.

“Like any other member facing dismissal, he had a vested interest in the outcome of the Conduct Hearing. Nevertheless, he spoke confidently. He was forthright and consistent in his evidence. He had no difficulty recalling the events,” the Conduct Authority said.

The 35-page decision goes into lengthy details about the events on the day Const. Grewal’s wife caught him with the other woman.

The Mountie admitted to overtaking on a double yellow line, and speeding, but the Conduct Authority found it wasn’t proven that other cars were forced off the road, and there were few vehicles about at the time.

The Board also found that while the Mountie had threatened to sue his mistress for accessing his medical records, he hadn’t uttered other threats.

“(Const. Grewal) had been, as he put it, ‘busted by his wife.’ He panicked. He was angry. He confronted the Complainant within minutes of finding out that the Complainant had set up his wife’s discovery of his infidelity. This was a moment of intense fear and anger. His thoughts were of losing his wife and children,” the decision reads.

“During the course of this proceeding, the Complainant disclosed numerous threats to different people at various times. She was not consistent in her disclosures,” the Board ruled.

The Conduct Authority said the threats that the complainant testified to were all “quite nebulous.”

“None actually threatened physical harm. Then throughout this proceeding, the Complainant was seriously concerned that this incident would harm her chances of becoming a police officer,” the Conduct Authority ruled.

Ultimately, the Board dismissed all the allegations against the Mountie, saying that his conduct was not discreditable.

The Board did have words for him though.

“Although I have found that neither Allegation was established, I note that this matter was entirely of (Const. Grewal’s) own making. His actions affected numerous people. Likely more than (he) realizes. I hope that he has learned from this experience, and I trust that he will not repeat similar behaviour during the remainder of his RCMP career.”