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.

  • BlameThePeacockEnglish
    388·
    8 months ago

    The law is very pedantic.

    and I’m not making an argument, I’m just clarifying terminology.

    • Jerkface (any/all)English
      1·
      6 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.

    • girlfreddyOP
      617·
      8 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.alEnglish
        153·
        8 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.

        • girlfreddyOP
          67·
          8 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
            54·
            8 months ago

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