A Wasaga Beach OPP officer found guilty of breach of trust has been handed her sentence, but won’t be going to jail.
Const. Kara Darnley was handed a 16 month conditional sentence in a Barrie court on Wednesday. She will spend that sentence under house arrest.
"Certainly been a long road and we'll move on from here,” Darnley said while leaving the courthouse with her newborn in her arms. “My only focus for now is with my daughter, 12-days-old and just, she's my world, focus on that and we'll see where it goes from there."
Darnley, who was dubbed the “hot cop” on the game show “Wipeout,” was found guilty of breach of trust in April for copying confidential police documents.
The defence alleged that her employer planted a fake document about her fiancé over concerns that he was involved in drugs.
"It seemed to be a very rare and uncommon difficult process, for no other reason than it seemed like they were just literally hell bent to prosecute Kara Darnley," defence lawyer Angela McLeod.
McLeod says typically police and the justice system work well together and she was surprised by what she heard in this case.
“I have never had a case where it seems the police were so intent on putting every possible resource into a prosecution or had such a seemingly vindictive approach."
The Crown wanted Darnley sent to jail, arguing there should be a more severe sentence for a police officer.
In July, a judge delayed Darnley’s sentence so she could give birth to her child. She was eight months pregnant at the time.
CTV Barrie asked the OPP and the Crown for comment on the sentence, but they declined because there are still outstanding matters within the Police Act to deal with.
It’s not yet known if Darnley will appeal her sentence.
