HEDLEY SINGER ALREADY GUILTY IN ONLINE WORLD.
Hedley singer deemed guilty by online world
Before a packed crowd in an Old City Hall courtroom Thursday, Jacob Hoggard’s journey through the criminal justice system began before a justice of the peace.
The lead singer of the Canadian band Hedley and former Canadian Idol contestant wasn’t present.
This was but a routine administrative appearance, lasting just a few minutes, and as such, it was enough that his lawyer, Ian Smith, appeared for Hoggard, who lives in Vancouver.
He was charged by Toronto police earlier this week with two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm — a more serious charge than simple sexual assault, with bodily harm defined in the Criminal Code as any “hurt or injury” to a person that interferes with the person’s health and comfort and is more than transient.
Hurt can include psychological harm.
Hoggard, 34, is also charged with one count of sexual interference, a charge laid only when an alleged victim is under the age of 16.
Police allege the offences occurred on separate occasions in 2016 when Hedley allegedly met “with a woman and a girl.”
That police released a mug shot of Hoggard — and have not, by comparison, done that with alleged serial killer Bruce Mcarthur — caused a bit of a social media kerfuffle.
But in fact the force quite often releases pictures of accused sex offenders, suspects who are at large or if police have “a valid investigative purpose.”
In Hoggard’s case, the purported investigative purpose is that, as the news release said, “Police (are) concerned there may be other victims,” a less significant issue, one would have thought, for such a wellknown singer and celebrity.
Regardless of the rationale, the practice also serves as a way for police to beat the bushes, as it were, for other complainants.
The release of the Hedley frontman’s mug shot, however, would likely be a lowranking worry for him and his lawyer.
Aside from the gravity of the charges (the maximum penalty for sexual assault causing bodily harm for a victim under 16 is life in prison, or 14 years if the victim is an adult), Hoggard begins his voyage through the system as several other high-profile men before him have done — as an accused who already has been found guilty by the online world.
The criminal charges against him were preceded first by a Twitter hashtag all about his band (#outhedley2k18), which was started in February by a Manitoba woman named Taylor Bowman who told CBC News she’d heard stories about inappropriate behaviour by band members and “we just decided enough is enough.”
Among the posts published under the hashtag are such gems as, “Pretty sure if you stand with Hedley … you’re a piece of sh-- who is supporting a rapist, who was sexually touching girls under 16, which makes him a PEDOFILE” and, after his arrest, “Time to get this piece of trash out of here” and to “Jacob Hoggard fangirls, ever wonder what justice tastes like? It tastes like your f---ing tears. Delicious …”
Some 13 days later, CBC published a report by an unidentified Ottawa woman who “came forward” to the broadcaster with horrific allegations that Hoggard forced her to have vaginal and anal sex against her will.
At the time, albeit through a different lawyer, Hoggard denied the woman’s allegations and said the two had arranged to have consensual sex.
On the band’s Facebook page, Hedley issued a statement referencing “the recent allegations against us posted on social media” and said they “are simply unsubstantiated and have not been validated.”
In the modern manner, the statement also praised the #Metoo movement and “the bravery of those who have come forward with their own stories” and insisted “there was always a line that we would never cross,” but acknowledged that the band had “engaged in a lifestyle that incorporated certain rock and roll clichés.”
Meantime, radio stations across the country, including, astonishingly, the CBC according to the CBC itself — this was all well before Hoggard’s arrest — stopped playing the band’s music. Their management team cut them loose. Other musical acts refused to open for them.
Hedley’s tour to promote a new album was dogged by controversy at every stop, as the hashtag gathered steam. The group finished the 32-stop tour, but announced its members were taking an indefinite break to work on their “personal relationships and who we are as individuals.”
The Ottawa woman filed a police complaint in March.
After a four-month investigation, police charged Hoggard Monday.
Found guilty in the online world and beyond, where the rules are taken from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, he is nonetheless presumed to be innocent in the courts.
His next court appearance is Aug. 15.