A woman accused of leaking intimate photos of a Brandon Police Service candidate to senior members of the force during a hiring competition has vehemently denied the accusations and filed court documents alleging two other men may have shared the intimate images.
Terry Lynn Peters, the defendant in a lawsuit filed by Brittany Roque, filed a statement of defence as well as a third-party claim against Ryan Friesen, a Brandon police officer, and Devon LeBlanc in the Brandon Court of Queen’s Bench last week.
The documents come as a response to Roque’s accusations that Peters distributed intimate images of Roque without her consent as an act of revenge after discovering the photos on her partner’s computer, according to Roque’s statement of claim.
Roque said she took and sent intimate photos to a BPS officer during a three-month affair with him in 2015, under the pretence he would not share the photos and would destroy them if the relationship ended.
Peters, a former civilian employee with the BPS, allegedly found the photos and distributed them to senior members of BPS approximately a year later while Roque was in the middle of a hiring competition to become a police officer in Brandon at the time. Roque isnow a police officer in Rivers.
Peters denied distributing the intimate images, but said that if any distribution occurred, “it was for the public good and in the public interest,” according to her statement of defence.
She also denied editing intimate images of Roque by putting Roque’s face on pictures of other women’s naked bodies.
Peters stated in her defence that she had a reason to believe the images were not private, and claimed in further court documents that both Friesen and LeBlanc possessed the intimate images of Roque as well.
“If any photos were in fact distributed, they were distributed by either Devon LeBlanc or Ryan Friesen,” the third-party claim said.
Peters stated in the claim that Roque’s intimate images were in Friesen’s possession “at all relevant times” and that he allowed Peters to view them.
The claim also states LeBlanc “distributed these intimate images to other members of the Brandon police force, including Ryan Friesen.”
In a reply to the statement of defence, Roque said LeBlanc was not involved, and accused Peters of “maliciously” making false allegations against him “as a further act of revenge against the plaintiff.”
“The sole purpose of the third-party claim is to further harm the plaintiff by making baseless and spiteful allegations against Devon LeBlanc, a close personal friend and the husband of another close personal friend,” Roque stated.
LeBlanc’s lawyer, Derek Cullen, told The Brandon Sun in an email they will be filing a formal denial stating LeBlanc has no involvement in the matters, adding he was only named due to allegedly being falsely implicated by Ryan Friesen.
“We are considering an immediate court motion to have him removed from the suit, and will be seeking court costs from the parties who wrongfully have implicated him,” Cullen wrote.
Roque said that neither the public interest nor the public good are served by the non-consensual distribution of intimate images.
“To the contrary: revenge porn is vile and disgusting and its suppression serves both the public interest and the public good,” the document reads.
Roque also included text messages allegedly sent to her by Peters in her court documents to support her allegation that Peters distributed the intimate images as revenge.
“You put them out there smart girl. Now they’re available for the whole world to see,” one message reads.
Another said: “So when you took all those photos and got involved with someone else’s spouse I bet you never imagined that the chief of police, deputy chiefs and who knows who else would be seeing those very same photos,” according toRoque’scourt documents. “You’re quite a horrible person. Karmas going to be a joy to watch.”
Roque also filed complaints with the Law Enforcement Review Agency (LERA) after a freedom of information request revealed senior members of the BPS deleted the images and smashed a USB drive containing the images with a hammer, rather than preserving them as evidence in a potential crime, said her lawyer, Kevin Toyne.
In a request for admission filed by Roque and provided to The Sun by Toyne, Roque alleges former chief Ian Grant, Chief Wayne Balcaen, Deputy Chief Randy Lewis and Sgt. Marc Alain received and viewed the images.
Via an emailed response, Balcaen reiterated the current legal action does not name the City of Brandon or BPS as parties to the litigation and declined further comment.
“Brandon Police Service believes it appropriate to allow those processes to proceed, without further comment at this time,” Balcaen wrote.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
» edebooy@brandonsun.com
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