Wrongfully accused: Doctor arrested for child porn in case of mistaken identity suing police for $3 million

A case of mistaken identity in a child pornograpy investigation that led to the arrest of a Nova Scotia doctor has now sparked a lawsuit, with the doctor seeking more than $3 million in damages. Dr. David Barnett, a family physician in Dartmouth, N.S., recently filed a notice of action in Nova Scotia Supreme Court against several officers in the Halifax Regional Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, according to an article in the Halifax Examiner. “The identification of Dr. Barnett as a criminal suspect was an absolute error committed by the police, based on an obvious typographical error contained in the investigation materials. The error was recognized by the officers as well as by a Justice of the Peace during a failed first attempt at obtaining a search warrant,” Dr. Barnett’s lawyers, Julian Falconer and Asha James, wrote in the notice. “The error was negligently ignored and diminished by the officers throughout their investigation,” the notice said, adding that the officers committed “negligent investigation, false arrest, and false imprisonment,” and violated Dr. Barnett’s Charter rights. Read: Lawyers for N.B. doctor file lawsuit against province, RCMP and Facebook Dr. Barnett’s wrongful arrest stemmed from a case that began when North Dakota police searched through a man’s phone and found a conversation with a man named Dustin Barnett on a New Zealand file sharing site called MEGA.NZ. A closer look at that online conversation revealed that Dustin Barnett had uploaded a video showing a girl between eight to 10 years of age, in a sexual context. Police also found that Dustin Barnett’s MEGA.NZ account was linked to a gmail address that included the name “dsbarnett.” The police did a Google search to get more information but, for some reason, used a different email address which belonged to Dr. Barnett. Police on both sides of the border continued to investigate the case and subsequently forwarded the incorrect information to the RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre, which sent the file to the Halifax Regional Police. Halifax police placed Dr. Barnett under surveillance and applied for a warrant to search his home. The justice of the peace who reviewed the warrant application flagged the erroneous email but the officer who made the request “simply modified the initial [Information to Obtain] indicating that the second email address was Dr. Barnett’s recovery email for another email account and the search warrant was granted,” the lawsuit notice stated. Dr. Barnett was arrested in December 2020 and shortly after the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova suspended his practice certification. He was released under conditions, including that he stay away from schools and computers. In January 2021, the charges against Dr. Barnett were thrown out and his licence was restored. Police in Canada blamed the mistake on their counterparts across the border. “As a direct result of the actions of the defendants, Dr. Barnett suffered a severe and profound impact to his personal and professional reputation in the City of Halifax, the province of Nova Scotia, and throughout the entire country, and was deprived of numerous opportunities to gain further employment and referrals from other doctors,” Dr. Barnett’s lawyers wrote. Dr. Barnett is seeking $1 million in general damages, “special damages in a sum to be disclosed before trial,” punitive damages of $1 million, aggravated damages of $1 million, damages related to the alleged Charter violations, and interest and costs. Read: Spain doctors win suit for lack of protection from COVID-19

Wrongfully accused: Doctor arrested for child porn in case of mistaken identity suing police for $3 million

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