Const. Melisa Rancourt of the Greater Sudbury Police Service has pleaded not guilty to new charges of causing a disturbance at the Espanola Recreation Centre.
The GSPS constable is accused of uttering threats at a 12-year-old hockey player and causing a disturbance after a February U-13 hockey game in Espanola. Rancourt coached the opposing team in the game.
Her trial began in Espanola court today, and is expected to run through Sept. 18.
The OPP issued a release regarding new charges on Feb. 11.
“It was reported that after an earlier hockey game on that same day, a coach had threatened and assaulted a 12-year-old player from an opposing team,” OPP said. “No injuries were reported.”
Though she was initially facing an assault charge, it was dropped in July due to lack of evidence.
On Sept. 17, the court heard testimony from the senior official at the game, Sean Cassidy, and the 12-year-old player Rancourt is accused of threatening. Sudbury.com is not naming the child as they are a minor, although the person’s name was used in open court.
Cassidy testified that despite the young ages of the players and the fact that this was house league hockey, the game was intense, and that feeling only grew in the second half, when a penalty call resulted in an Espanola goal being disallowed.
“The Espanola head coach, (Rancourt) was getting more animated throughout the game,” said Cassidy. “One behavior that really sticks out in my mind is kicking at the bench. There was a lot of kicking involved at the boards. It appeared in anger or frustration, I'm not sure.”
He said she was consistently calling on the officials to “validate” their calls.
The next face off, the other team scored. One player from that team skated by the Espanola bench to “celebrate.” What Cassidy described as “rubbing salt in the wound.”
The court would later hear the specifics of this from the 12-year-old player, who said his teammate blew a kiss to the Espanola team and that the celebratory player was chastised by his coach when he returned to the bench.
“I think that that brought Miss Rancourt to another level in terms of anger after that, just more of the same aggressive-type motions and anger,” Cassidy testified.
He was specific that there was no physical altercation. “She didn't ever go on the ice or do anything like that. It was just anger contained within the bench,” he said. “I think the word that we used was ‘seething’. You could see she was very upset with the proceedings and how the game ended.”
Cassidy said it was “more stressful than it needed to be for this type of a hockey game, because in our opinion, it was a relatively fair game.”
Nonetheless, due Rancourt’s conduct, the officials changed their usual procedure for this age group, escorting each team separately off the ice.
Video evidence (with no audio) after the game shows the hallway leading to all the dressing rooms. At one point, both the 12-year-old player and Rancourt are in frame, and she is seen speaking and pointing to the child.
According to the player, who testified remotely along with a representative from the Victim/Witness Support Program, Rancourt was displaying “unsportsmanlike conduct” during the game.
He said when she spoke to him in the hall, Rancourt, who was the coach of the opposing team, told him and his teammate, “if you guys ever do that celebration again, I'll make sure you guys never skate’. And then I said, ‘how?’ And she said, ‘I'll break your ankles’.”
Although it’s been determined no physical contact occurred between the older police officer and the young hockey player, when he first gave his statement to police after his mother reported the incident, the 12-year-old player included details that are not seen in the video, such as Rancourt “waiting for him in the hallway,” and “brushing him with her upper body” and “blowing kisses at him.”
When asked why his story had changed, he said he was scared at the time and it affected his memory. “ I had messed some up,” he said.
On the video, Rancourt is then seen to have a visibly intense conversation with another woman. The 12-year-old player identified this person as the mother of another player on his team.
Walker asked him if this woman had later told him that Rancourt “would regret f**king with us,” and “she’s going to lose her job,” he said he couldn’t remember.
At one point, the 12-year-old witness came to the verge of tears, and asked for a break. When he returned, Walker asked if the child had made up the untrue claims or if someone told him to say them.
“No, I made it up,” he replied.
The defence ended their questions for the player, but Crown attorney David Kirk asked to reexamine, bringing just the question of what Rancourt said to the 12-year-old, as he heard it.
In his recorded testimony to police, he repeats that Rancourt said she’d break his ankles, and reconfirmed that portion to the Crown.
He told the Crown he told Walker he made it up as, “I didn’t know how to answer.”
The trial continues, with defence testimony to begin Sept. 18.
Second round of charges for causing a disturbance
While Rancourt was charged with this offense in February, it is not her first appearance as a defendant in criminal court.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rancourt was charged for causing a disturbance at another hockey game, also at the Espanola Rec Centre.
In September 2021, she was charged with resisting a peace officer and two counts of entering a premises when entry has been prohibited, contrary to the Trespass to Property Act (TPA).
Rancourt and her wife refused to provide proof of vaccination to attend their child’s hockey game at the Espanola Recreation Centre, and witnesses told Sudbury.com Rancourt screamed, called bystanders “Nazis,” and kicked a door while arguing with an OPP officer called by rec centre staff.
Those criminal charges were withdrawn after Rancourt completed the John Howard Society’s Direct Accountability program.
In October 2022, Rancourt faced a disciplinary hearing, which determined she should be demoted from first-class constable to third-class constable for a period of one year, followed by one year in the rank of second-class constable, conditional on satisfactory performance of duty by the officer.
She would also be required to perform 40 hours of volunteer work through the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies to better understand her use of the word “Nazi.”
Rancourt will also face a disciplinary hearing for these charges, with next steps taking place Sept. 25.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter at Sudbury.com.