A mistrial has been declared in the case of a former Edmonton police employee charged with sexually abusing a child after new evidence has “radically” changed the Crown’s theory of the case.
Yasin Cetin, a former community relations coordinator with the Edmonton Police Service’s equity and inclusion branch, is accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy in late 2023 after meeting him on a social media site. He resigned from EPS in May 2024 and was charged in March 2025.
Cetin, 33, had pleaded not guilty in Edmonton Court of King’s Bench Monday to child luring and sexual assault. On Tuesday, Justice Kent Teskey declared a mistrial at the request of the prosecution. Teskey said allowing the trial to continue would “create more complexity,” due to the nature of new applications that may be required and the changing scope of the Crown’s case.
Dramatic Turn in Court
The trial took a dramatic turn on Monday afternoon when prosecutor David Gault told court he discovered a piece of evidence over the lunch break that could change the Crown’s theory of the case “radically.”
Gault had said earlier that the Crown’s case was focused on proving the identity of the man who abused the boy. The Crown’s evidence included a video the victim recorded during one of the sex acts, during which a man’s face is briefly visible, and a selfie of a man who resembles the accused, which was found on the teen’s laptop.
A statement of facts filed Monday, which the Crown has now backed away from, said the teenager, whose identity is covered by a publication ban, met the perpetrator on Scruff, a dating app. The conversation moved to Snapchat, where the man used the screen names qwerty3125 and BADlee. Gault told the court on Tuesday that the Crown no longer believes the person behind these usernames was Cetin.
Timing Concerns
“I am particularly concerned about the timing of things,” Gault later added. The statement of facts said on Dec. 3, 2023, the man picked the teen up near Russ Barnes arena and drove to a secluded area where they engaged in sex acts. The two continued to exchange intimate videos until May 2024. The following month, the teen told a group home staffer about his interactions with the man, which triggered the police investigation. Police examined the teen’s laptop, where they found several saved Snapchat conversations, as well as the selfie and the clip of the man’s face.
Defense Response
Cetin’s lawyer, Zachary Al-Khatib, said the turn of events was disappointing and that his client was looking forward to proving his innocence in court. “My client has a full explanation for where he was on the night of the allegations, and he wanted to put that forward in court,” Al-Khatib said.
Al-Khatib said the case now has to go back to the drawing board. He said the Crown hasn’t abandoned the prosecution, but now must outline how it will proceed with a new trial. Court heard proceedings for the new trial will begin next month.
