A Sudbury OPP officer who admitted to stealing items seized during a police investigation now has a criminal record and has been sentenced to 12 months of probation after pleading guilty to breach of trust in court earlier this summer.
Sgt. Straun Frederiksen, 53, was charged April 26, 2022 under the criminal code with theft and breach of trust and pleaded guilty July 23 to breaching the public trust. The sentencing decision was released Sept. 4.
Frederiksen will also have to complete 75 hours of community service, avoid contact with the victim, known in the court documents as ‘M’, and have to pay a $100 victim surcharge, which is standard for summary convictions.
The conviction stems from actions between 2019 and 2022, states the sentencing decision, as written by Justice Graham Jenner.
While employed with the OPP and while responsible for the property vault, Frederiksen took two items seized during an investigation: a beaded firearm strap and a firearm scope which court documents reveal he brought to his residence.
For 11 months, states the decision, “Frederiksen misled his colleagues, as well as the Crown Attorney’s Office, before ultimately confessing that he had taken the items home and subsequently thrown them out.”
The man the items belonged to, referred to as ‘M’, negotiated his own plea which included the return of his .303 rifle, its scopes and straps, to allow him to carry out his cultural traditions, hunting for sustenance.
M said the strap attached to the gun was beaded, a gift from his late wife.
Following up on this request, the court documents state that several items belonging to M were stored in Frederiksen’s office, rather than the property vault.
The firearms were all located, but missing was the beaded strap and a scope.
Though several items were sent to M as he attempted to get back his property, the strap and scope were not found.
Following investigation by the OPP, it was believed that based on the wording of the forfeiture order created after M’s plea, it was possible the missing items had been destroyed.
“The Risk Management department deemed the OPP not culpable for the missing items,” states the decision, and in December 2021, this was conveyed to M’s counsel, and M was advised that the “police could purchase a new beaded strap should M wish.”
But then, said the sentencing, several months later on February 23, 2022, Frederiksen called OPP Insp. Maville and “confessed he had taken the beaded strap and scope to his home and subsequently threw them in the garbage.”
The court documents state Maville expressed concern that Frederiksen “had been involved in the ordeal to attempt to locate the item, had knowledge of his colleagues’ extensive efforts, and had not said anything earlier.”
Insp. Maville advised that Frederiksen was “extremely apologetic and remorseful when he made the disclosure.”
A 27-year veteran of the OPP, Frederiksen, through his attorney Glenn Sandberg, asked for a conditional discharge and a period of probation.
Emphasizing “his long record of public service and extensive community support, his mental health struggles in a high-stress work environment, including during the COVID-19 pandemic and the death of another officer, and rehabilitative steps taken since his arrest, which the decision states includes volunteering, and working with his church.
He has also “completed an online Aboriginal Worldviews and Education Course and is continuing with follow-up courses.”
The Crown argues that a conditional discharge would be contrary to the public interest and asks this court to suspend the passing of sentence and place Mr. Frederiksen on probation. The Crown acknowledges the various mitigating features of the case but submits they only justify reducing what would otherwise be a custodial sentence.
Though both Crown attorney David Kirk and the judge felt that “a conditional discharge would be in Mr. Frederiksen’s own best interests,” and that Frederiksen himself “needs no specific deterrence to prevent him from offending in the future,” Kirk submitted that granting the discharge “would be contrary to the public interest” and the judge agreed.
“A discharge would risk signaling to the public that this conduct is excused by the previous good character and professional service of the offender,” Jenner said in his decision. “It would risk contributing to the fraught relationship between Indigenous persons and the criminal justice system, rather than promote reconciliation.”
Given the trust placed in the offender as a supervisor, the breach of that duty, and the subsequent “sustained deception,” a conviction is required to serve that general deterrent function, the decision states.
“In my view, registering a conviction, and imposing a suspended sentence and period of probation are sufficient to denounce the conduct in clear terms, to promote a sense of responsibility in Mr. Frederiksen, and to acknowledge the harm done to M, the OPP, and the public generally,” said the decision.
