Former top Mountie David Teboul quits post, admits assaulting teen lacrosse player
Former RCMP Assistant Commissioner David Teboul has resigned from his post and has pleaded guilty to assaulting a teenager who he grabbed by the throat after a lacrosse game involving the officer's son in Abbotsford, B.C., in July 2025.
An agreed statement of facts read out in a court at a sentencing hearing in Abbotsford on Wednesday said Teboul held the 16-year-old victim by the neck with enough force to lift the youth off the floor, in what special prosecutor Andi MacKay called an unprovoked attack.
“There was zero provocation in this case – zero,” MacKay said. “I say that Mr. Teboul’s acts were gratuitous and opportunistic violence … he applied the force to (the victim’s) neck not once, but twice. He had obvious less risky alternatives available to him, although frankly there was zero necessity of engaging physically with (the victim) at all.”
Teboul is seeking a conditional discharge, while MacKay said that was "wholly inappropriate" and is seeking a suspended sentence with an 18-month probation period. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 19.
The court heard that Teboul quit his leadership post on July 1. The RCMP did not immediately respond to questions about whether he remained with the force in any capacity.
The statement of facts said Teboul's teenage son got into a verbal altercation with the victim after their match at the Abbotsford Recreation Centre on July 2, 2025.
Teboul’s wife then got involved before Teboul intervened, holding the victim by the neck twice. The first occasion was brief but Teboul lifted the youth off the floor, while the second lasted 15 seconds as he bent the victim over a low wall.
MacKay said aggravating factors included Teboul making a statement to police that was “irreconcilable” with security camera footage of the altercation.
Teboul told Abbotsford police the victim was “coming at” him with his chest “pumped” and teeth clenched. He said the teenager got in his face before he took action to create distance between them.
But the video played in court showed Teboul moving forward to grab the teen by the neck and pushing him against the wall, arching the victim backwards over the structure.
MacKay told the court there was no way to tell if the discrepancies resulted from Teboul's “best efforts to recount his experience” or if there was a “more sinister purpose to facilitate some other result.”
But the discrepancies should be noteworthy, she said.
“The Crown submits that these statements are a further abusive and aggravating use of his status as a police officer,” MacKay said.
The statement of facts said Teboul declared he was a police officer during the assault, which may have led to the youth not fighting back.
The plea on the single charge comes more than a year after Teboul was charged with two counts of assault and one count of assault causing bodily harm by choking, suffocating or strangling.
His lawyer, Brock Martland, told the court that a conditional discharge was an appropriate sentence for a father who acted on “protective instinct” when his son faced what he viewed as a threat of violence.
Martland said Teboul had no intention of intimidating the youth when he said he was a police officer, since he “has a duty” to do so during an altercation.
The lawyer said the guilty plea reflected Teboul's recognition of wrongdoing.
He said his client had lost his career, livelihood, and “his previously outstanding reputation” as a result of the assault that lasted less than a minute.
“He is also a human being,” Martland said of Teboul. “And human beings make mistakes. Even the best and the brightest will have lapses in judgments. He made a mistake. He stepped up and (has) taken responsibility for what he did.”
According to the RCMP's website, Teboul joined the Mounties in 1997 and served in detachments along the west coast of Canada.
It said his career included more than a decade of homicide investigative work and several years in charge of the RCMP's Anti-Corruption Unit, before he joined British Columbia's National Security Counter-Terrorism Program, where he served for eight years and was in charge for nearly three years.
In March 2024, Teboul was appointed assistant commissioner in the position of federal policing regional commander for the Pacific region, which includes B.C. and Yukon. It said he led all federal programs in that role, including national security, drugs and organized crime, border integrity, financial integrity and protective services.
The website said he had also been granted several RCMP service awards and commendations, and he received the King Charles III Coronation Medal in June 2025, about two weeks before the alleged offences.
Martland called Teboul a mentor and trusted colleague for others in law enforcement, and he had worked on some of the largest investigations in Canada during his policing career.
Teboul, dressed in a black suit, mostly sat straight and motionless but leaned forward and wiped his face with a tissue when Martland recounted his family and police relationships.
In an impact statement read by MacKay, the victim said the attack resulted in minor soft-tissue injuries on this neck but worse was the “humiliating” and “degrading” nature of the assault in front of his teammates and others.
“The fact that the individual involved was an assistant commissioner of the RCMP and was off-duty makes this experience particularly difficult for me to understand,” the victim’s statement said.
“Someone in a position of authority and responsibility should be expected to exercise judgment and restraint, especially in a disagreement involving words.”
The victim, whose identity is protected because he is a minor, said he quit lacrosse after the assault because it affected his ability to enjoy the sport.
Teboul's trial had been set to begin on Tuesday, but the dates were vacated pending Wednesday's guilty plea.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2026.
By Chuck Chiang | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.