Charge woman who lied about sex assault
Purposefully telling heinous lies about someone is akin to murdering their reputation. Doing it under oath in a court of law is a crime. Why then, is it so rarely treated as such?
At least a defence attorney in Ontario tried to have the complainant in a highly publicized sexual assault case against two University of Ottawa hockey players charged with perjury after the complainant was caught by him “lying under oath” about what happened in the early morning hours of Feb. 2, 2014.
Two Gee Gees — assistant captain Guillaume Donovan and captain David Foucher — were charged in August 2014, when they were 25 and 24 years old respectively, with one count each of sexual assault after a then 21-yearold woman says she had consensual sex with another team member at the Thunder Bay, Ont., hotel where the team was housed for a game against the Lakehead Thunderwolves on Feb. 1.
In a 22-page verdict written in French and read aloud in court on Monday, Ontario Court Justice Chantal Brochu found the accused not guilty and said the complainant, known as M.S. in the ruling, lacked credibility after lying to police and the court.
Donovan’s defence attorney, Christian Deslauriers, says even though the two accused young men were “totally vindicated” by the judge, their reputations and many opportunities, including meaningful employment, were destroyed as a result of false allegations for more than four years.
“Their names on Google will forever pop up with these false allegations. But I think it’s better being in this situation than being in the #MeToo situation,” said Deslauriers.
“With #MeToo, people make allegations and then the accused cannot really defend themselves. In all this, I think the young men’s reputations are somewhat restored because the judge said that she believes the accused and didn’t believed the complainant at all.”
M.S. “denied in open court that she had continued communicating with the other player after the alleged incident.
“I gave her two or three opportunities to tell us, but she denied it fervently with her hand on the Bible,” said Deslaurier.
“Then,” he added, “I started cross examining her with 53 pages of her text messages with the other player,” exclaimed Deslauriers. “Not one text message, but 53 pages of text messages!”
The texts included communications about making up a story to tell the police. “‘What should we say? Make sure to say the same thing. If we say the same things we should not get in trouble,’” he said. “So she was completely destroyed by lying on the stand,” he stated.
The judge wrote: “Given that proof, it is impossible for the court to accept the testimony of (the alleged victim) as credible or even reliable.”
Deslauriers says he did something “very unique” following his cross examination of the complainant with the text messages.
“After she acknowledged that she lied to me ... I asked in open court for the judge to order perjury charges against her and to have her arrested.”
Deslaurier says Brochu deliberated for about an hour and determined she did not have the jurisdiction to press charges. She said only the Crown could do that, and Crown prosecutor Marc Huneault refused to do so.
That’s a shame and a travesty of justice, and it happens too often.
Donovan, who shared a room with the other player who hooked up with the woman on the dating app Tinder, admitted to engaging in consensual sexual relations with the woman. Foucher says he never touched her.
So why did M.S. lie? Deslauriers has a theory. The court heard that when M.S.’s girlfriend caught her in the act, “not being a very good girl,” M.S. tried to protect her reputation with one friend by destroying the reputations of two innocent men. It was her friend who told the team coach and called the police. M.S. didn’t want to.
Meanwhile, 22 other members of the team have filed a class-action lawsuit against the university for ruining their reputations through association by dismantling the team and firing the coach. Foucher and Donovan may still join the class action. Here’s hoping they all win.
Despite the nonsensical statements taking place as a result of #MeToo and on Parliament Hill with, for instance, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing that women should always be believed, it’s past time for the mistaken infantilization of women complainants to stop. Otherwise, more solid reputations will continue to be murdered.