Accusing the heads of two London women's agencies of using their influence to destroy his personal life and career, a former London police officer and city hall staffer has launched a defamation lawsuit against them, as well as two local police agencies.
Marcel Marcellin is suing Megan Walker, the executive director of the London Abused Women's Centre, and Kate Wiggins, the former director of Anova, for the "pain, humiliation, trauma and stigma of his ordeal," after he was charged with assaulting his ex-wife and fired from his job with the City of London. A statement of claim also names several other defendants that include the London Police Services Board, former London Police Chief John Pare, the Woodstock Police Services Board, former Woodstock Police Chief Bill Renton, the London Abused Women's Centre and Anova.
Marcellin is seeking over $4 million in damages against the defendants.
Following a 21-year tenure as a police officer, which included time as the diversity officer with London Police Service, Marcellin left the police force in 2016 to work for the City of London as the director of Organizational Strategy and Initiatives. In January 2018, he was put in charge of the "UN Woman's Safe Cities" initiative, an international policy objective to create safer city spaces for women and girls. During this time, Marcellin was embattled in ongoing family court proceedings with his ex-wife over custody of their children.
It was during his time that Walker and Wiggins, who have a close relationship with Marcellin's former spouse, began to allegedly pressure the city to remove him from the UN Women's Safe Cities initiative; attempts which included meeting with Marcellin's direct supervisor to make allegations of abuse. They also demanded that he be removed from his position within the city initiative
"This action was an attempt to blackmail Marcel into discontinuing his family law proceedings or else face the consequences," the lawsuit alleges. “This was an intentional interference with Marcel's economic and employment interests. Ms. Walker and Ms. Wiggins had become drunk with the power that their positions or influence had provided them."
"[These actions] constitute deliberate attempts to ruin Marcel's life, professional reputation and career."
In August of 2018, Marcellin's ex-wife contacted the London Police Service and made allegations of an assault that occurred sometime in 1994 and 1995. The lawsuit statement of claim said the allegations were made as "a deliberate attempt to harm [Marcellin] as retribution for pursuing his rights in family law proceedings."
The lawsuit alleged that the police service was then "bombarded with criminally obstructive phone calls and emails from Ms. Walker and/or Ms. Wiggins demanding that Marcel be charged."
Marcellin was charged with two counts of assault shortly after on August 17, 2018. The charges against Marcellin became widely publicized due to his position with the City of London.
The alleged campaign against the city staffer continued following the announcement of his charges. In particular, Walker allegedly defamed the former police officer in a series of Twitter posts in late August that juxtaposed convicted rapist Bill Cosby to Marcellin.
"Walker knew or ought to have known that this series of tweets would cause irreparable harm to Marcel's reputation and further jeopardize his career," the lawsuit said. "This exemplifies a deliberate campaign by the defendants... not only to circumvent the role of the justice system and convict Marcel in the public realm, but to dehumanize him using racial stereotypes."
Marcellin was fired from his position at City Hall on January 17, 2019, following a five-month stress-induced medical leave. However, the assault charges were ultimately dropped by the Crown in June 2019.
"The reason for the withdrawal of the charges was that there was no reasonable probability of conviction," the lawsuit stated. "[However], Marcel continues to live with the pain, humiliation, trauma and stigma of his ordeal."
Prior to being charged in 2018, Marcellin sought criminal charges against Wiggins and Walker for extortion and criminal harassment after they approached his supervisor. The investigation was referred to the Woodstock Police Service to avoid possible conflict of interest with Marcellin's previous employer, the London Police Service. However, no formal charges were laid against the two women.
The lawsuit has accused then-Chief Pare and the London Police Service of negligence for laying charges when "there was a high likelihood of the criminal justice system being used for ulterior motives." It also has accused former Chief Renton and the Woodstock Police Service of negligence for failing to conduct a detailed, thorough and objective investigation into the claims of extortion and criminal harassment.
The lawsuit claimed that even after Marcellin's charges were withdrawn, Walker and Wiggins continued to "exact their own version of justice" by continuing their campaign of harassment. The lawsuit alleges the pair asserted that the former police officer posed a danger to the community, despite the charges being dropped.
"They wielded their influence inappropriately, both in private conversations with city officials and LPS officers and by maliciously and/or recklessly defaming Marcel in the mainstream media," the lawsuit alleged.
These events have largely prevented Marcellin from gaining employment, according to Phillip Millar, Marcellin's lawyer.
"There have been a few jobs that were well suited for him, [but] his name comes up in a Google search about these charges and the comments people made about him that were not true," said Millar.
Millar said all defendants now have 20 days to file a notice of defence.
"This is a case we want to take to trial because there is only one way to fix your reputation when this has happened, and that is to do something like this," he said. "It's not about men or women, or the MeToo movement, it's about what was done to Marcel personally to destroy his life."