Police officer who sought ‘sexual gratification’ from victims he met while on duty is awaiting sentencing

An Edmonton police officer has admitted he used his position of power to prey on women he met while on duty for his “own sexual gratification.”

Edmonton police officer Hunter Robinz pleaded guilty to one count of breach of trust in King’s Bench court on Oct. 21. He is awaiting sentencing and is due back in court on Friday.

Robinz admitted to multiple breaches of trust through his off-duty contact with eight women from March 2017 to June 2019.

The court found he exhibited a pattern of predatory behavior, repeatedly making inappropriate sexual advances against crime victims or complainants he met through his work.

An agreed statement of facts filed with the court details Robinz’s misconduct against eight victims. Their names are protected by a publication ban.

The charges were laid by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which began investigating an allegation of sexual abuse against Robinz in August 2019.

He was arrested in 2021 after the watchdog investigation found evidence that he had committed multiple breaches of trust, including repeated searches of secure police databases for names and addresses unrelated to his duties as a police officer.

Three other charges against Robinz – assault, unauthorized use of a computer database and a second charge of breach of trust – were stayed by the Crown.

Unwelcome encounter

The investigation began in August 2019 after an encounter between Robinz and a 24-year-old woman who claimed she was assaulted by Robinz after he entered her home uninvited while she was in uniform and on duty.

The unwanted sexual advances took place on the night of June 29, 2019.

The woman was drunk and in a state of distress after a night at the bar when she called the police from a public park.

Robinz and another officer responded to the call and drove her home. Along the way, they stopped to pick up the keys to the woman’s apartment in Edmonton from her roommates who were on duty at a McDonald’s restaurant.

Robinz returned to the woman’s home later that evening and used the roommate’s keys to enter the apartment. The woman recalled crying as Robinz put his hands on her waist and kept trying to kiss her.

He kissed her several times as she pushed him away and yelled at him. Finally he let her go upstairs to use the laundry room and when she came out he was halfway up the stairs.

He tried to kiss her again and she asked if he needed a warrant to be in her house. She told him ‘no’ and had to push him away again, the court heard. She begged him to leave and asked him to go more than twenty times before he finally left.

“She stated that she was lucky that she was not ‘blackout drunk’ because she was able to say ‘no’ and push him away and he eventually left,” an agreed statement of facts reads.

Early the next morning, the woman received a series of sexually explicit text messages from Robinz on social media, via his Facebook account, Ranger Sparrow.

The following month, she reported the attack to ASIRT and the agency’s investigation against Robinz began. Robinz was transferred from his patrol job to administrative duties.

His police phone was confiscated. Investigators discovered a series of messages showing that Robinz had sought sexual encounters with multiple crime victims.

In March 2017, he sent explicit text messages to the sister of a woman he was assigned to help after she became suicidal.

In May 2018, he was called to help a woman following a suspicious person in her backyard. Days later, she reported Robinz to the EPS Public Standards Branch for sending her an unsolicited and inappropriate text message.

The woman was concerned that Robinz had contacted her via the social media platform Snapchat in a way that suggested he had accessed her personal information.

In October 2018, Robinz responded to a domestic violence call about a man who violated his court orders and contacted his ex-partner. Robinz soon started a relationship with the victim of domestic violence.

The woman informed investigators of the relationship with Robinz after her ex again violated his court orders and sexually assaulted her.

The EPS Professional Standards Branch investigated the relationship, but Robinz lied that he met the woman in his capacity as a police officer, according to the agreed statement of facts.

The other victims include the victim in an attempted burglary and a domestic violence victim who was attacked at the Edmonton Inn. After calling the police for help, Robinz was appointed lead investigator on her case.

All violations occurred while Robinz was on active duty.

Robinz admitted that he used his position in public office for a purpose other than the public good, primarily for his own sexual gratification.– Agreed statement of facts

“Robinz admitted that he used his position in public office for a purpose other than the public interest, primarily for his own sexual gratification,” the agreed statement of facts said.

During a court appearance last week, Staff Sgt. Harry Grewal, head of EPS’s sexual assault department, commented on the impact of Robinz’s misconduct.

Grewal described Robinz’s actions as egregious. He said the officer’s conduct had a profound impact on the victims and eroded public confidence in the police.

Robinz already victimized vulnerable individuals and undermined trust in law enforcement, Grewal wrote.

‘Every day our officers meet people during the worst moments of their lives. All are in a state of vulnerability, some even significant,” Grewal wrote.

“The trust we receive from the community in these moments is significant and so, in turn, is our commitment to honoring it.”

Robinz remains an EPS member but has been suspended without pay since March 2021 after being charged by Parkland RCMP with assault and unsafe storage of a firearm during an alleged attack on his common-law wife.

He was convicted of careless use or storage of a firearm for storing a carbine rifle and two magazines of live ammunition in an unlocked box in his bedroom closet, but was acquitted of the assault.

The maximum penalty for breach of trust is fourteen years in prison. Deliberations on sentencing are expected to continue on Friday.