A sexual assault case against an Edmonton police officer is finally moving forward after the complainant waited two years for answers.
A statement of claim says in August of 2023, the 25-year-old complainant was at a 7-Eleven on Edmonton’s south side when she first saw a marked EPS cruiser. She says that cruiser followed her before pulling her over.
According to the lawsuit, the officer said she was speeding and later when he saw her on the phone with her mother, she says he took the phone and told her mother he “would drive behind the plaintiff while she returned home to make sure she got home all right.”
Criminologist Dan Jones said that behaviour from an officer would be a red flag. “Him even driving her home, for what reason? There was no charge laid, she obviously wasn’t impaired,” said Jones.
When she drove home, she says the officer asked to go inside to say hello to her mother. After learning the mother was in the shower, she says the officer then told her to show him the basement. That’s where he allegedly asked, “Are you wearing anything under your shirt and leggings” and, “No one will hear us down here”.
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That’s when the woman says he pulled her toward him. The statement of claim says she told him to stop, but he sexually assaulted her before leaving.
About 20 minutes later, she says he called her from a private number and told her to meet him in the alley. She says she believed she had no choice, and she went.
According to the statement of claim, another 10 to 20 minutes later, her mother found them in the alley, and then the officer left.
“These things aren’t common but when they happen, it makes people hesitant to contact police because all of a sudden you have this situation where this individual has done something so significantly heinous and it just shines a negative lighting on policing because of this individual’s behaviour,” said Jones.
The complainant reported the allegations to police shortly afterwards and the case was handed to ASIRT.
A lawyer for the complainant says ASIRT told him the file had gone to Crown prosecutors in September of 2024.
But Const. Renzo Geronimo was not charged until this week — more than a year later after the Crown got the file, and two years after the alleged incident.
“My client feels her security has been breached in a way that can’t happen with a regular member of the public. An individual she trusts, an officer, from an institution she trusts, does this to her and then she has to wait over two years. Frustrating doesn’t even begin to describe how she feels about it,” said the complainant’s lawyer, James Raworth.
Alberta’s Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement to Global News, “These are very serious charges and the matter was thoroughly reviewed by senior Crown prosecutors in two ACPS offices. Those reviews took several months to complete.”
“Any sexual assault case that involves someone who is not a member of any police agency would never take this long,” said Raworth.
“It gnaws at someone to think that maybe they don’t believe me, maybe nothing is going to happen when months turn into years,” said the complainant’s lawyer.
“The fact it finally did happen is great relief to her, but it doesn’t change the fact that she went through two years of doubt and wondering if anyone is going to take her serious.”
None of the allegations have been proven in court, and no statement of defence has been filed yet.
Geronimo will make his first court appearance next month.
Edmonton police updated Friday that he is now suspended without pay.
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