Probe clears military police in case of pilot charged with sexual assault who took his own life

An almost two-year-long internal investigation into how military police handled the criminal case of an air force officer who took his own life after being charged with sexual assault has cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing, CBC News has learned.

The report by the Office of Professional Standards of the Canadian Forces Provost Marshal, dated Feb. 9, 2024, concluded that complaints made by the family of Maj. Cristian Hiestand were «not substantiated.»

The officers involved insist that their investigation was not conducted hastily.

Hiestand was charged with two counts of sexual assault in the late fall of 2021, days after he'd ended a tumultuous, short-term relationship with a civilian woman.

The charges were laid by military police in provincial court in Saskatchewan less than a week after he broke off the relationship and within five days of authorities receiving a complaint from the civilian woman in question.

CBC News first profiled the Hiestand case 18 months ago.

His family members claimed that the military police investigation was rushed. They said the investigating officers failed to talk with Hiestand or look at text messages he exchanged with the woman he was accused of sexually assaulting on two occasions — information he claimed would exonerate him.

According to the family, military police officers told Hiestand they had enough evidence to charge him and didn't need to interrogate him.

Hiestand took his own life on Jan. 18, 2022, a little more than a month after being arrested. A military board of inquiry concluded last year that Hiestand, a pilot instructor at the airbase in Moose Jaw, Sask., was deemed by medical staff as a «moderate» suicide risk, but there was little formal follow-up by his superiors.

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