KAWARTHA LAKES-Kawartha Lakes Police Services Detective Constable Jeff Burke was sentenced to a 12 month Conditional Sentence Order consisting of six months house arrest and a six month curfew followed by six months probation, in a Lindsay courtroom today.
“I am at peace with it.” Burke told Kawartha 411 after the sentencing. “The Judge made some great points and you know I would have preferred a lesser sentence, but I am at peace with what transpired. Certainly the opportunity hasn’t been taken from me to keep doing good for the community in the future.”
Burke plead guilty to one count of Breach of Trust in May after admitting to stealing drugs from an evidence locker at the police station and was suspended from work.
The 13 year police veteran was charged in April 2018 with two counts of theft under $5,000, two counts of possession of stolen property under $5,000, two counts of fraud under $5,000 and three counts of breach of trust. Additional charges were laid after it was discovered Burke had siphoned 1500 prescription pills from an investigation into drug tampering at Shoppers Drug Mart.
“Officer Burke treated this investigation as his own personal pharmacy to treat his addiction  and repeatedly broke the trust of the public.” Javed stated in his sentencing today.
Burke suffered from PTSD and drug addiction at the time of the incident. The preciding Judge, Justice Javed found that both were as a result of two traumatic events in Burke’s career.
In April 2011, Constable Burke was attempting to execute a search warrant in Lindsay when he was hit in the face by a man wielding a machete. He suffered serious injuries and was taken to Ross Memorial Hospital. Burke told Kawartha 411 after they stitched him up and he went right back to work.
A few months after being attacked with a machete Burke was involved in another serious incident. In June 2011 a drug raid on an alleged crack house in Lindsay went bad. There was an exchange of gunfire and Peterborough Police Constable Keith Calderwood was shot and seriously injured. Another man was killed. The Peterborough Police Emergency Response Unit had been called to assist with the execution of a high risk search warrant at a home on Georgian Street in Lindsay. Burke was the investigating officer in that case and wrote the warrant for the raid. He has said he felt tremendous guilt because of what happened to his colleague, compounding his already fragile mental state.
Later Burke was prescribed opiates after dental surgery. He describes the drugs making his mental and physical pain go away but leading to his drug addiction.
Read the full story here:Â https://www.kawartha411.ca/2019/05/27/police-officer-charged-in-theft-of-drugs-from-evidence-locker-says-not-enough-done-to-treat-his-ptsd/?fbclid=IwAR0XaD_7WJAK5EUVCf0fILIA-qPEpV8noavSSYIGmBlWpKRNiAVO7oH6RqQ
