{"id":830241,"date":"2026-07-28T00:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T00:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/830241\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T00:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T00:08:13","slug":"officer-who-retired-after-assault-harassment-and-gun-charges-on-path-to-resolve-criminal-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/830241\/","title":{"rendered":"Officer who retired after assault, harassment and gun charges on path to resolve criminal case"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Ottawa police officer who retired earlier this month after he was criminally charged with intimate partner assault, harassment and weapons offences\u00a0could see his case resolved this fall after completing a treatment program, CBC News has learned.<\/p>\n

Late last week, in the accused’s second court appearance since being charged in April, his defence lawyer Mark Wallace asked for an unusually long adjournment of nearly 14 weeks.<\/p>\n

CBC News is not naming the officer to protect the identity of his alleged victim.<\/p>\n

The special assistant Crown prosecutor assigned to the case \u2014 criminal cases against officers must be assigned to specialized Crowns based elsewhere in Ontario to avoid conflicts of interest \u2014 was not in court to agree to the adjournment.<\/p>\n

Wallace had to explain the reason for it to the presiding justice of the peace and the regular Ottawa-based Crown prosecutor who was present.<\/p>\n

“My client has entered a residential treatment program that’s nine weeks long,” Wallace told court. “Today is day one. He was accepted in May, but today was the first day of a bed opening up.”<\/p>\n

The unspecified residential treatment program is a condition in a possible resolution to the criminal case, court heard.<\/p>\n

The Crown has also not yet decided whether it wants to handle the charges summarily (as a less serious matter) or by indictment (as a more serious matter).<\/p>\n

The justice of the peace told Wallace that the court expects “all steps for resolution” to be done by the ex-officer’s next scheduled appearance. If anything happens to jeopardize the possible resolution before then, the court expects “counsel will act diligently to address it [in court].”<\/p>\n

The courts are trying to seek resolutions in every possible situation, from parking tickets to homicide. They are always looking for early resolution.- Unnamed Ottawa police officer<\/p>\n

Reached by phone later that day, Wallace declined to answer questions about what kind of treatment the ex-officer is seeking or the possible resolution on the table \u2014 whether it might involve a peace bond, charges being dropped, pleading down to a lesser offence or anything else.<\/p>\n

\"AAn aerial view of Ottawa Police Service headquarters on Elgin Street in April. (Michel Aspirot\/CBC)Had served in mental health unit<\/p>\n

Kingston Police\u00a0announced the charges against the officer in late April<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His alleged offences include assault, criminal harassment (by threatening conduct and\/or repeatedly following and\/or watching\/besetting), careless storage of the restricted Glock pistol issued to him by Ottawa police, and careless use of that Glock.<\/p>\n

Neither the Ottawa Police Service nor the union representing its rank-and-file and civilian members have answered questions about when the former officer joined the force or what his roles had been over the years, citing his retirement.<\/p>\n

CBC News has learned he had recently served in the mental health unit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Domestic violence case against former Ottawa police officer could be resolved this fall<\/p>\n

CBC News has learned that a criminal domestic violence case against a former Ottawa police officer could be resolved this fall, but an internal investigation won\u2019t happen because the former officer decided to resign earlier in July. The CBC\u2019s Kristy Nease reports.Resolutions very common<\/p>\n

Criminal charges against police are “very frequently” resolved “if not at the first appearance, then shortly after,” according to an Ottawa police officer who spoke to CBC News on the condition that they not be named because they’re not authorized to speak publicly and they fear career-related reprisal.<\/p>\n

But it’s not because police are getting preferential treatment, the officer said. It’s because resolutions are commonplace no matter who you are.<\/p>\n

“The courts are trying to seek resolutions in every possible situation, from parking tickets to homicide. They are always looking for early resolution,” the officer said.<\/p>\n

An assistant Crown prosecutor in Ontario, who also spoke to CBC News on the condition that they not be named because they could lose their job, agreed.<\/p>\n

I think the public would be surprised, concerned, worried, given the amount of time that went into educating the system \u2026 about the cycle of domestic violence.- Unnamed assistant Crown attorney<\/p>\n

People don’t see “how low the sentences have become” for intimate partner violence, the assistant Crown said. Nor do they realize the high number of resolutions being made to try to clear case backlogs in overburdened courts, they added.<\/p>\n

“I think the public would be surprised, concerned, worried given the amount of time that went into educating the system \u2014 police and Crowns and judges \u2014 about the cycle of domestic violence,” the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n

Both the officer and prosecutor also said police sometimes get harsher treatment than civilians accused of crime.<\/p>\n

For instance, no one expects a landscaper charged with intimate partner violence to lose their job over it, the officer said. Civilians don’t get fined thousands of dollars in separate disciplinary hearings once their criminal matters are over (as police sometimes do when they’re demoted for bringing discredit to the force).<\/p>\n

In an emailed statement, Ottawa police said officers are “subject to the same criminal justice process as other accused persons” and “may also face separate employment and professional consequences because of the responsibilities and standards associated with policing.”<\/p>\n

The recently retired officer facing criminal charges is next scheduled to appear in court in the fall.<\/p>\n

Not enough data<\/p>\n

According to one expert, it’s hard to look at the question of preferential treatment because the data just isn’t there.<\/p>\n

“It’s really difficult to get high-quality data on Canadian criminal courts that [is] going to include all the variables,” said Scot Wortley, a criminology professor at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies.<\/p>\n

Police forces across the country need to be more transparent about officers charged with crimes, he added.<\/p>\n

\"ACriminologist Scot Wortley, seen here in 2019. (Andrew Vaughan\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

To compare police and civilian criminal outcomes properly would require controls for aggravating and mitigating factors, the severity of the crime, age, gender, race, criminal history and more, Wortley said.<\/p>\n

“Not collecting [or] releasing the data gives the system the stance of plausible deniability…. That ‘You may feel this way, but we don’t have data. We’re not going to release data, so you can’t prove it,'” Wortley said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think we’ll see much of a major change until a large proportion of the public comes and demands such transparency. I think the fear is that the release of such data could undermine the legitimacy of the justice system, erode confidence in the justice system, and that is something to be avoided at all costs.”<\/p>\n

Do you have information to share on this story, about other justice participants, or judicial affairs in general? Write in confidence to kristy.nease@cbc.ca or call her office landline at 613-288-6435.<\/p>\n

You can also reach her using Signal, an end-to-end encrypted messaging platform. Contact kristyneasecbc.613 or search her landline number listed above.<\/p>\n

If you would like to send information anonymously, you can use CBC’s encrypted SecureDrop system:\u00a0https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/securedrop\/<\/a>\u00a0Send it to the attention of Kristy Nease, and make sure to remember your account name and password.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Ottawa police officer who retired earlier this month after he was criminally charged with intimate partner assault,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-830241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}