A former Hamilton police officer will not go to jail for sexually assaulting the woman he was mentoring as she pursued her own career in policing.

Michael LaCombe, 54, will instead serve 12 months of house arrest followed by 12 months of probation after Justice Cameron Watson found him guilty of two counts of sexual assault in January, following a trial.

Watson sentenced LaCombe on Monday at the Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines, Ont., describing his crimes and the aftermath as “a spectacular and cataclysmic fall from grace” in his written decision.

“His life has taken an irreparable downward spiral. He is no longer the man he once was,” Watson wrote.

Watson also described how LaCombe’s conduct “devastated” the victim, who has felt isolated and suffers from panic attacks, among other impacts, in recent years.

  • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    35
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    5 months ago

    The pig should be in jail, and you shouldn’t be making excuses for him.

      • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        who kisses another person without their consent

        You are seriously are doubling down on defending people who sexually assault people. No consent is assault and that can get you jail time.

        The pig was in a position of power and is supposed to be better than the average person.

        I’m not defaming him, as it’s my opinion that he is a pig and deserves jail time for his actions.

        Edit: either a lot of people don’t know what defamation is, or they are hand waving sexual assault.

      • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        19
        arrow-down
        27
        ·
        5 months ago

        I’m being specific and correct.

        You’re being pedantic. Caring more about the rules of language than the fact a woman’s life has been decimated by a rapey cop doesn’t help your argument.

          • jerkface@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            3 months ago

            You just fucking said you weren’t making a legal argument, that the term was not defined in the law in the relevant jurisdiction. But now that you realize you’ve crawled out too far on a shaky limb, you’re still turning to “it’s not my opinion, it’s just the law!”

            Doesn’t work that way.

          • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            17
            ·
            5 months ago

            And placing your perception of language over and above that of a woman whose life has been devastated by a fucking cop.

            Maybe you could place what happened as more important than the specific language used.

            • lazynooblet@lazysoci.al
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              15
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              5 months ago

              I think you’re missing the point. The law needs to be specific. It describes levels of criminal activity and in this case details how the law differentiates between what the law calls “rape” and “sexual assault”.

              Sure, from our perspective that girl got raped, and that’s how I would describe it. But the law doesn’t.

              • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                6
                arrow-down
                7
                ·
                5 months ago

                The point of this thread is that a cop got off charges with a slap on the wrist. It is not, and never was, about what he did as much as he faces exactly zero consequences.

                • Maalus@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  5
                  arrow-down
                  4
                  ·
                  5 months ago

                  He got 12 months house arrest and 12 months probation after that. That’s not “zero consequences”.

        • blargerer@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          28
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          5 months ago

          No its not. Rape is a subcategory of Sexual Assault not the other way around. What this guy did was wrong. He is (probably) facing too light of a punishment for it (article says the crown wanted double). I’m just not an expert on these matters at all. But he didn’t rape her. Period.