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A former Saskatoon police officer who assaulted a fellow officer during an off-duty party that he hosted at his home says he hopes his case serves as a cautionary tale for others.
Dylan Kemp stood in Saskatoon provincial court during his sentencing on Thursday and apologized for the assault. He said it happened during a time when he was drinking alcohol to excess every day to cope with the stress and PTSD from his job.
“I invited [the victim] to my house for a night of safety and enjoyment and that’s not what happened, unfortunately,” he said. “But the other side of that is I haven’t drank since that occasion and I’ve taken a lot of steps to speak out about mental health and learn about myself.”
The assault happened on Sept. 14, 2024, during a backyard party. Crown prosecutor Christopher Browne read an agreed statement of facts in court outlining what happened.
Others described Kemp as being “one of the most intoxicated persons present,” Browne said.
The victim was a special constable who was in the process of applying to be a regular member of the police service. When she went inside to use the washroom, Kemp approached her and put his hand on her throat and she pushed him away.
He grabbed her wrist and she struggled, falling onto a couch where Kemp ended up on top of her. She kicked him off and went outside.
Kemp approached her again and he made a comment that she could fight and wanted to show everyone. She refused, and Kemp came “extremely close” to her; she pushed him away. That led to another altercation in which Kemp wrapped his legs around the victim’s waist, squeezing her and asking if she could breathe. She said she was being hurt and told him to stop.
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Dylan Kemp was sentenced Thursday to a conditional discharge with one year of probation for assaulting a junior officer at an off-duty party in September 2024.
She went to another area of the backyard, and Kemp approached her again and started another altercation, this one leaving her with a bloody nose.
“[She] did not consent to any of the physical contact with the accused,” Browne said.
The following Monday, a co-worker noticed the woman’s black eye and the incident was reported, which led to the criminal charge.Â
Kemp was also fired from the police service. He intended to appeal but the lawyer handling his appeal, Steve Seiferling, botched the filing and lost a court application to fix his mistake.
Conditional discharge recommended
The Crown and defence jointly recommended that Kemp receive a conditional discharge with one year of probation, which means that if Kemp successfully completes the probation, he will not have a criminal record.
Browne noted that in some cases where a person who has no criminal record is charged with common assault, the charge can be referred to alternative measures — which gives the accused an opportunity to deal with the charges outside of the criminal process if they accept responsibility and agree to make amends.
The Crown didn’t think that was appropriate in this case, given that Kemp was in a position of some authority over the victim and police officers are generally held to a higher standard, Browne said.
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Kemp’s lawyer Brian Pfefferle also argued that a conditional discharge is appropriate. He said Kemp confessed to the assault even though he knew he had a right to remain silent, and he apologized to the victim at the time and again on Thursday.
Pfefferle said Kemp, who was a police officer for nearly a decade, was using alcohol at the time to cope with incidents he had recently faced on the job, including being the first responder at a “horrific” scene where a child had been mauled by an animal.
In another case, he investigated a domestic homicide where the deceased, who closely resembled Kemp’s mother in appearance, had been mutilated. Then in 2024, Kemp responded to a scene where a suspect turned a weapon on him and Kemp shot and killed the person.
Brian Pfefferle, Dylan Kemp’s lawyer, speaks to reporters outside Saskatoon provincial court on Thursday. (Don Somers/CBC)
In hindsight, Kemp now understands he was burying the trauma and drinking alcohol to cope, Pfefferle said. Basically, the only time he was sober was when he was on the job.
“And when you get as drunk as he was getting around this period of time, you do things you regret,” Pfefferle told reporters outside of court.
“And this is one of the things he regrets, one of many things around that time he regrets. He was putting poison into his body at the end of every shift for months on end.”
Judge Morris Baniak agreed with and imposed the jointly recommended sentence of the conditional discharge with 12 months of probation.
Kemp’s probation conditions include abstaining from alcohol and non-prescribed drugs, as well as participating in addictions programming, personal counselling and an assessment for mental health concerns, as directed by his probation officer.