‘He broke me’: Judge weighs consequences of former Kingston Police sergeant's assault of subordinate

A former Kingston Police sergeant who admitted to assaulting a female constable he supervised will have to wait to learn whether the offence will leave him with a criminal conviction.

Jason Alblas appeared in Napanee’s Ontario Court of Justice on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, for a sentencing hearing that placed two competing considerations squarely before presiding Justice Geoffrey Griffin: the need to denounce a serious breach of trust by a senior police officer, and the rehabilitation of a man whose otherwise successful policing career spanned more than two decades.

Assistant Crown attorney Siobhain Wetscher is seeking a 12-month conditional sentence — a custodial sentence served in the community under court-imposed conditions. Defence counsel Joseph Markson is asking Griffin instead to grant Alblas a conditional discharge, accompanied by two to three years of probation and up to the maximum 240 hours of community service.

A conditional discharge involves a finding of guilt but does not result in a criminal conviction. Unlike an absolute discharge, it requires the offender to comply with conditions imposed through a probation order. The discharge remains on the offender’s criminal record for three years after sentencing, after which the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) seals the record.

Alblas pleaded guilty in June to assault after originally being charged with sexual assault in February 2025. The complainant's identity is protected by a publication ban, a customary measure in such cases.

The court heard that Alblas and the complainant were among those attending a police-related celebration at a cottage in Napanee in August 2024. Alcohol was consumed throughout the day by attendees. In the evening, the two were sitting beside one another around a bonfire when Alblas made a remark about the complainant’s breasts.

Later she left the fire and headed toward the cottage to use the washroom. Alblas followed her, approached her from behind, and took her into the garage, where he touched her sexually without her consent.

The complainant said she felt powerless to stop Alblas, who was bigger and stronger than she was; she was also dealing with a broken foot. She described being acutely aware of the power imbalance between herself and her supervisor.

The assault stopped when she spotted another officer outside the garage and called out to him. She later went to her vehicle and locked herself inside but could not leave because she had been drinking.

Alblas subsequently approached the car, knocked on the window, and pulled at the door handle while she hid beneath a blanket.

On Thursday, the court heard in stark terms what the assault has meant to the complainant.

Victim impact

In a powerful victim impact statement read by the Crown, the complainant noted the sad irony of her situation: “As a police officer, I'm supposed to protect victims; it has been difficult accepting that, in this case, I am a victim.”

And, “Of all places to be, you would think a party with all police officers would be safe, but it was the complete opposite for me.”

Before the assault, she said, she saw herself as a strong person. She distilled the impact into three words: “He broke me.”

“He shattered this self-image that I spent my whole life building in a few short hours. My self-image was altered from confident and proud to embarrassed, ashamed and devastated,” the victim said.

The consequences have also followed her back to work. She had been with Kingston Police for little more than a year when the assault occurred, and she said her ability to build relationships with colleagues has suffered because of the attack.

She said she no longer wants to attend work social events, has become quieter around colleagues, and worries that she is viewed either as “the girl who ratted out her supervisor” or as “the girl that was sexually assaulted by her sergeant.”

The power imbalance between Alblas and the complainant will be among the significant factors Griffin must weigh.

Among the Kingston Police members present for the sentencing hearing was Staff Sergeant Cameron Gough, a former Kingston Police Association president who currently sits on the board of the Police Association of Ontario (PAO). Kingstonist asked the PAO to clarify whether Gough attended in an official or personal capacity.

“Attending sentencing hearings is not among the roles or responsibilities of Directors of the Police Association of Ontario (PAO). Directors who choose to attend court proceedings do so independently and not as representatives of the Board,” the PAO responded in a statement.

“Such attendance by individual Board members does not represent the views or activities of the PAO.”

Crown submissions

Wetscher argued that Alblas does not come before the court as an ordinary offender. Although he was off duty, the gathering was connected to their employment, the complainant was a constable under his supervision, and Alblas was also vice-president of the Kingston Police Association — an organization that advocates for the individual and collective interests of its members and says it is committed to providing them with a healthy and safe workplace.

Wetscher also noted that police officers depend upon one another in potentially life-or-death situations and that an officer who commits a violent offence against another officer breaches not only the trust of that other officer, but the public's trust in law enforcement itself.

While Alblas pleaded guilty to common assault rather than the sexual assault with which he was initially charged, Wetscher said the admitted conduct violated the complainant's sexual integrity, making the offence more serious.

The Crown acknowledged significant mitigating factors, including Alblas's guilty plea, lack of a criminal record, otherwise successful policing career, and efforts at rehabilitation. But Wetscher argued those considerations do not outweigh the need for denunciation and deterrence.

She also cautioned against giving excessive weight to the consequences Alblas has already experienced, including the loss of his career, arguing that employment consequences arising directly from an offence cannot overwhelm the sentencing analysis.

Kingstonist independently confirmed this Kingston Police that Alblas is no longer employed with the local police service.

Defence arguments

 Alblas is represented by Joseph Markson, a Toronto criminal defence lawyer whose practice includes extensive work representing police officers facing criminal charges and professional discipline. He urged Griffin to view the case differently.

Markson acknowledged that Alblas occupied a position of trust and authority over the complainant and accepted that as an aggravating factor. But he stressed Alblas must be sentenced for the offence to which he actually pleaded guilty — assault — and argued that the agreed facts do not describe the sexual touching with enough specificity to place the conduct at the most serious end of the spectrum.

The defence also cautioned Griffin that portions of the victim impact statement went beyond the agreed statement of facts, including the complainant's statements that she had told Alblas nothing would happen between them, that physical resistance made no difference, and that Alblas was waiting for her when she emerged from the bathroom.

Markson did not challenge the legitimacy of the complainant's feelings or the impact of the offence, describing her statement as courageous. His point, he said, was that allegations not established through the agreed statement of facts cannot themselves become facts used to increase Alblas's sentence.

Against the aggravating circumstances, the defence placed considerable emphasis on what it characterized as an isolated, alcohol-fuelled aberration in an otherwise pro-social life.

Noting that Alblas was extraordinarily intoxicated that night, Markson pointed to Alblas's subsequent decision to stop drinking as part of his rehabilitation.

Wetscher pushed back on the weight Griffin should give that explanation, referencing R. v. Berseth, a 2019 Ontario Superior Court decision included in the defence’s own book of authorities. The decision addresses self-induced intoxication at sentencing and found that, while intoxication may sometimes have limited relevance to an offender’s moral culpability, it does not lessen the seriousness of the offence.

Griffin appeared similarly reluctant to place significant weight on alcohol’s role.

“If you took alcohol out of our society, I probably wouldn't even have a job,” he remarked.

Alblas had no criminal record and no disciplinary record over nearly 23 years in policing. Griffin noted the extensive performance appraisals, commendations, and letters filed with the court documenting what Alblas had accomplished during that career, and he said that material would be considered.

A psychiatric assessment filed by the defence placed Alblas at low risk of violent recidivism and described the offence as out of character. The court heard that Alblas has been attending psychotherapy since shortly after his suspension and has abstained from alcohol since January 2025.

Alblas also addressed the complainant directly through a letter read in court by his counsel, in which he acknowledged the damage he had done by betraying their professional relationship and friendship. He repeatedly said he wished he “could turn back time.”

The letter also described a period of heavy drinking and turmoil in his personal life before the assault, although he insisted he was not blaming alcohol and had “nobody to blame but myself.”

Much of the letter also detailed what the defence characterized as the “collateral consequences” of his behaviour — how his own life has changed since the offence.

Alblas wiped away tears with a tissue as his counsel described the loss of his policing career, financial difficulties, damaged friendships, and the painful experience of telling his teenage daughters that he had been charged with sexual assault.

Since the offence, the court heard, Alblas has undergone regular psychotherapy, stopped drinking alcohol, worked to address his personal relationships and the issues he says contributed to his excessive drinking, and started a construction business after leaving policing.

Those circumstances demonstrate rehabilitation, his counsel argued, rather than merely collateral punishment. He urged Griffin to consider whether imposing a criminal conviction on a 40-year-old man who has already lost his career, stopped drinking, undergone therapy, and presents a low risk of reoffending would serve a meaningful public purpose.

Markson argued that Alblas has “basically been living himself in a life of house arrest since this happened; he's been imprisoned by his perception of the community about what he did to the complainant and what that has done to his good name and its impact on his family and finances and everything else in the community of Kingston.”

Alblas has, he said, been essentially “living under a self-imposed conditional sentence for the past year and change.”

Defence counsel argued that a conditional discharge need not amount to an absence of punishment. He proposed up to three years of probation and 240 hours of community service, arguing those conditions could themselves satisfy the need for denunciation and deterrence while allowing Alblas to continue contributing to the Kingston community.

“You can build a conditional discharge that will have a real denunciatory, deterrent effect,” Markson urged the judge. “It will benefit the community; we can get him giving back, as opposed to staying home and going out for work and back.”

That leaves Justice Griffin with a significant distinction to make.

Sentencing considerations

The defence says the breach of trust is real, but that the sentence must also account for an otherwise exemplary record, a guilty plea that spared the complainant a trial, substantial rehabilitation and an assessed low risk of reoffending.

The Crown says Alblas's rehabilitation may be genuine but cannot eclipse the seriousness of a police sergeant sexually touching a subordinate without consent, or the damage such conduct does to the victim, trust within policing, and confidence in the justice system.

For the complainant, however, the consequences are already lasting.

“The offence and the offender have taken up far too much of my thoughts, time, and emotional and physical energy,” she told the court. “I need to be done with the pain, fear, and self-doubt.”

Griffin said there could be no doubt the events of the police party in August 2024 had life-changing consequences, and he thanked the complainant for a victim impact statement that provided important context about how the assault had affected her.

Griffin reserved his decision, saying the court had been provided with a significant amount of material and that he wanted to carefully consider the competing arguments. The sentence is expected on October 8, 2026.