OPP inspector previously accused of Gretzky-stick fraud suing police

An Ontario Provincial Police inspector, whose charges in relation to an alleged fraudulent sale of a Wayne Gretzky hockey stick were withdrawn, is suing Brantford police, the OPP and the RCMP for more than $6.3 million, claiming investigators were negligent when they charged her in 2020 .

In a statement of claim filed in Ottawa Thursday, Insp. June Dobson, the former Grenville County detachment commander, argues the Brantford Police Service, the OPP and the RCMP, as well as specific officers, “did not meet the required standard of care of reasonable police officers taking into account all of the circumstances.”

“It’s not often that you have a high-ranking, career-long police officer who is charged with crimes that they should never have been charged with,” Dobson’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, said in a telephone interview Thursday.

“When the police are investigating one of their own, if anything, they have a higher duty of care,” added Greenspon, because when charges are laid it is “career-ending.”

The lawsuit seeks damages totaling $6,350,000 from the Brantford Police Services Board and four Brantford officers, Staff Sgt. Keith Tollar, Staff Sgt. Grant Davies, Sgt. Jason Davis, and Cst. George Madgwick, as well as the OPP and the RCMP.

The defendants, including Brantford Police, have 30 days to file a statement of defence. None of the allegations in the statement of claim have been proven in court.

Police spokesperson Robin Matthews-Osmond sent an email statement that, as the case is before the courts, no comment will be provided.

In December 2020, Dobson was charged with fraud over $5,000 and breach of trust.

The charges against Dobson, who was 58 at the time of her arrest, were withdrawn in August 2021 and she remains with the OPP.

Dobson’s charges followed a police investigation in 2020 into the alleged theft of Gretzky memorabilia from his father’s home in Brantford, reported to police in August 2020. Police said the investigation discovered that missing items from the Gretzky home had likely been sold to a number of collectors across the country; warrants were executed at five homes across Ontario and Alberta.

At the time, the Brantford Police Service added that “police uncovered evidence of a second individual, unrelated to the initial investigation, believed to have committed a fraud involving Gretzky memorabilia (hockey stick).”

In December 2020, Tollar said Dobson was alleged to have “misrepresented the authenticity and the origin of the item,” thereby increasing its value to a purchaser.

Dobson is a longtime friend of the Gretzky family, Tollar said, and was not alleged to have had any part in either the theft of memorabilia or its subsequent movement.

While the hockey stick bore an authentic Wayne Gretzky autograph, she tried to pass it off as a Gretzky stick actually used in a game, according to the sergeant at the time.

Upon the charges being dropped, Dobson’s lawyer at the time said the inspector had been “falsely accused of misrepresenting a backyard hockey stick used by Wayne Gretzky when he was a young boy.”

Dobson sold the hockey stick for $6,000 in 2019 to a “self-proclaimed expert and collector of Gretzky memorabilia,” according to the lawyer’s statement. She “displayed complete visibility and transparency throughout the process” and the buyer had the opportunity to examine the stick before purchasing it, the statement said.

Thursday’s statement of claim accuses the defendants of “failing to take the appropriate steps to properly investigate the allegations because they were blinded by the high-profile nature of the investigation.”

The investigators relied on “unreliable and easily controverted” statements by members of the Gretzky family, the claim continues, and failed “to take into account the overwhelming exculpatory evidence.”

It says the charges caused Dobson significant psychological and financial damage, including damage to her potential future career.

“Because this matter involved Walter and Wayne Gretzky, two well-known Canadian heroes, there was significant media coverage about June Dobson’s arrest,” it adds.

“From the time of Ms. Dobson’s arrest until the time the charges were withdrawn and beyond, she has suffered, and continues to suffer significant stress, physical and psychological harm and reputational damage.”

(Please check this story later for updates.)