The legal problems keep mounting for a Chatham-Kent police officer on medical leave who is charged with several offences.
Constable Cristelle VandenEnden has been charged with breaching her release conditions just days after being arrested and charged by Ontario Provincial Police officers in Leamington on January 6, 2021 for possession of property obtained by a crime under $5,000 and three counts of drug possession. She was released with conditions pending a court date on March 8, 2021. Among the condition was to not communicate with a specific man.
Chatham-Kent police said Constable VandenEnden was again arrested on January 8, 2021 around 9:30 p.m. after police responded to a disturbance at the officer’s home in Chatham and saw the man she was not to communicate with on her property. Police allege this was not the first time that she had communicated with him.
VandenEnden was charged with two counts of failing to comply with her release conditions and was given another court date on January 21, 2021. Constable VandenEnden continues to be on a medical leave of absence from work. Chatham-Kent police said no further information will be released in order to protect the integrity of the court process and pending a Police Services Act investigation.
Vanden Enden was also arrested and charged with fraud and other offences in May of 2020 following an investigation dating back to December of 2019. Chatham-Kent police said they started looking into that case after a local citizen reported the theft of personal blank cheques on December 27, 2019. Vanden Enden is also facing undisclosed charges under the Police Services Act.
She was also charged following a drug complaint on March 21, 2020, but that charge was set to be withdrawn if she is eligible for and completes a program called Direct Accountability.
