BARRIE

A Barrie Police constable who was under a paid suspension while dealing with criminal charges was one of the highest paid police officers in the city last year, earning almost $160,000 according to the public sector salary disclosure for 2012.

Const. Nathan Bowman was off duty while dealing with charges stemming from separate incidents including assault causing bodily harm and careless use of a firearm, but he suddenly resigned on April 30, 2012.

Where other first-class Barrie Police constables on the list earned from around $100,000 to $110,000 last year, Const. Nathan Bowman got to sink his teeth into $159,671.42 in only four months. He is topped only by the police chief, who earned $195,187.20.

Bowman was on paid leave while facing both criminal and Police Act charges.

He was charged with assault causing bodily harm, along with two other Barrie police officers. During a lengthy trial that stretched out over a year, court heard a retired engineer was beat up in the foyer of his home July 5, 2009. But in the end Justice Michael Block found all three officers not guilty. But Bowman did not go back to work because he was in the midst of other charges.

In a separate incident, Bowman was charged with careless use of a firearm after he was accused of allowing a drunk woman play with his loaded handgun in June 2009.

One year later the charges were dropped in criminal court, in exchange for a peace bond ordering that Bowman have no contact with the woman. The case then went before a Police Act tribunal where Bowman was charged with discreditable conduct. During the hearing, a witness testified Bowman came to the door in uniform while on duty and stayed to have drinks with her friend, a “petite blond” who got tipsy. She testified her friend giggled and pranced around the room and posed in the mirror with Bowman’s loaded gun and one point stuck it in her mouth. The woman said Bowman asked her for a date and later took her up to her bedroom.

The tribunal hearing came to a sudden halt last April when Bowman announced he was resigning from the police force.

The unexpected resignation brought the hearing that lasted several months to a sudden end without a conclusion.

At the time, Chief Mark Neelin would not comment on whether or not Bowman was offered a buyout to resign.

Bowman was on another leave in 2008 after he was charged with drunk driving. However that case was thrown out of court because Justice Peter West found the case took too long to get to trial and therefore breached Bowman’s rights.