22 charges laid against ex‑Durham police officer in decades‑old sex assault case: SIU

The province’s police watchdog has laid a series of serious charges against a former Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS) officer after reopening a decades‑old sexual assault investigation.

Special Investigations Unit (SIU) Director Joseph Martino said he has reasonable grounds to believe the former officer, Kevin Seamons, committed multiple criminal offences against a female in connection with allegations dating back to 2003.

The SIU originally investigated the matter in 2003, but the case was relaunched in 2024 after the woman involved came forward with new information.

As a result of the renewed investigation, Seamons is now facing a total of 22 charges, including six counts of sexual assault, seven counts of sexual exploitation, sexual assault with a weapon, six counts of breach of trust, assault with a weapon and pointing a firearm.

A Canada‑wide warrant was issued for Seamons’ arrest. He was taken into custody on Wednesday by RCMP officers in Morinville, Alta., the SIU said.

He has since been released on conditions, including an order prohibiting him from communicating directly or indirectly with the complainant.

Seamons is scheduled to appear in court in Oshawa on June 5.

The SIU said it would not release any further details as the matter is now before the courts, while the Durham Regional Police Service declined to answer any questions about Seamons’s time in the force, saying only that he was no longer employed there.

However, records show Seamons was subjected to a disciplinary hearing after the SIU closed its initial investigation into the complainant’s allegations, resulting in his dismissal in 2006 after 17 years as a constable. 

Seamons pleaded guilty to 10 counts of professional misconduct, most of them related to the teen involved in the criminal case, documents from the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services show.

Those pleas related to actions such as repeatedly visiting her home and taking her in his cruiser without authorization, including when responding to police calls, the documents show.

The girl’s parents brought her to the police station for a talking-to in 2003 because they believed she had taken and used their credit card without permission, the documents show. Seamons was the officer who spoke to her, the records say.

“This initial contact appears to have given rise to an ongoing relationship with both (the girl) and her family,” court documents say.

Seamons challenged his dismissal, arguing there was nothing inappropriate about his relationship with the girl and that he was “in effect acting as a social worker or surrogate parent,” court documents show.

The records say he spent “a significant amount of his personal time” with her but never claimed overtime for it.

The Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services upheld the decision to fire Seamons, finding no error that would warrant interfering with the hearing officer’s ruling. 

“The sheer number of convictions is striking. Further, nine of these charges relate to conduct that occurred over a period of six months,” the panel wrote.

“The hearing officer concluded that what was in question was a deliberate course of behaviour and not isolated acts of human frailty, simple errors in judgment or mere failures to follow established procedures. This finding was certainly open to him.”

The SIU is an independent civilian agency that probes incidents where people died or were seriously injured. Investigators also review incidents where sexual assault has been alleged or a firearm was discharged at a person.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report