Ex-Chatham officer charged with sexual assault for third time

A longtime ChathamKent police officer who recently resigned from the force is charged with sexually assaulting a woman while on duty — the third such accusation he’s faced since 2015. Ontario’s police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), announced Tuesday that it had arrested Kenneth Miller, 46, and charged him with sexual assault and breach of trust.

This is the third time since 2015 that the SIU has charged Miller — a 20-year police veteran who resigned in March before he was sentenced to 60 days in jail — with sexual assault and breach of trust related to alleged on-duty incidents.

The head of the Chatham-Kent Sexual Assault Crisis Centre expressed frustration over the latest set of charges against Miller. “He was a police officer in a position of trust, in a position of authority,” executive director Michelle Schryer said.

“It’s extremely concerning.” Most recently, Miller was given a 60-day sentence in March — to be served on weekends in protective custody at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre in London — after pleading guilty to breach of trust in a May 4, 2013, incident involving a 33-year-old woman who reported being sexually assaulted inside a police cruiser.

The sexual assault charge was withdrawn.

Miller, who resigned from his job the day before he was sentenced, was also charged with sexual assault and breach of trust after a woman, 23, reported being sexually assaulted inside a police cruiser on Aug. 23, 2015.

Both charges were later withdrawn in court.

Until his resignation, Miller had been suspended with pay — Ontario police chiefs don’t have the power to withhold pay from suspended officers — after the SIU launched its first investigation on Aug. 27, 2015.

In the latest case, Chatham-Kent police contacted the SIU on March 28, 2018, to report a sexually related complaint by a woman, whose identity wasn’t made public, about a man working as a police officer at the time, the SIU said. “Because the case is before the courts, I can’t comment any further on this matter.” SIU spokesperson Monica Hudon said Tuesday.

Miller was released from custody on several conditions including not communicating directly or indirectly with the complainant. He’s scheduled to appear in a Chatham court on Dec. 11. Chatham-Kent police didn’t respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Created in 1990, the SIU probes all cases of serious injury, death and allegations of sexual assault involving police.