Third trial begins for RNC officer Doug Snelgrove
‘I can only ask you for an open mind,’ Crown tells jurors in sexual assault case
Wednesday morning, almost 200 potential jurors filed into the auditorium at the former School for the Deaf in St. John’s, sitting six feet apart in rows and prepared to be there for a while.
By noon, all but 14 of them were told they were free to leave. Those remaining will spend their days at the school for at least the next week, hearing evidence in the sexual assault trial of Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer Doug Snelgrove.
“Fairness and impartiality is one of the best traditions of our legal system. The law expects no more of you and will accept no less,” Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Vikas Khaladkar told the jurors.
The trial is being held in a temporary courtroom established at the school for jury trials since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, because it offers more space to allow for social distancing protocols.
Snelgrove, 43, is charged with sexually assaulting a woman while he was on duty in St. John’s in 2014, and the court proceedings will mark the third time he has been tried on the charge. It will be the fourth time, including a preliminary hearing, the complainant has been called to testify in court. Snelgrove originally pleaded not guilty and was acquitted by a jury in 2017, but a new trial was later ordered. That trial happened last fall, but ended in a mistrial after Justice Garrett Handrigan determined he had made a protocol error when dismissing two alternate jurors before sequestering the remaining 12 to begin their deliberations.
The mistrial caused outrage in the community. Protesters took to the steps of the Supreme Court courthouse, expressing concern for the impact the result could have on the willingness of victims of sexual assault to come forward, and calling for judicial reform with a trauma-focused approach and specialized training for justice system participants.
Wednesday afternoon, Khaladkar told the jurors two of them would be dismissed before deliberations by a lottery, with each of their numbers placed into a drum and two chosen at random.
Khaladkar presented the jury with his initial instructions, urging them to keep an open mind and telling them, “We’ve all formed opinions upon hearing part of a story, only to change our mind upon hearing the full story.”
“These are only guidelines,” he said after explaining the basics of the law. “Overall, use common sense when it comes to what you believe and what you reject.”
In order to find Snelgrove guilty, the jurors must agree on five elements of the sexual assault charge: that the accused touched the complainant, that he did so intentionally, that the touching was of a sexual nature, that the complainant did not consent to the touching and that the accused knew she did not consent.
A person cannot legally give consent if they are unconscious or severely intoxicated, and they can’t legally consent to sexual activity with someone in a position of authority or trust who abuses that position to induce the consent. All sexual activity without consent is a crime.
In his opening remarks, Crown prosecutor Lloyd Strickland told the jurors he intends to prove Snelgrove took advantage of an intoxicated young woman when he picked her up in downtown St. John’s on the night in question and had unconsensual sexual activity with her once he brought her to her home. Snelgrove’s vehicle’s GPS indicated he had been at the scene, Strickland said, and his DNA was found on the woman’s couch.
“I can only ask you for an open mind,” Strickland told the jury, before calling his first witness: RNC Const. Kelsey Muise, who testified she had picked the woman up after responding to an unrelated call of unknown trouble in January 2015.
The woman seemed drunk and distraught when she got into the police vehicle, Muise said, where the woman told her that she had been sexually assaulted by an RNC officer a month earlier.
On cross-examination, defence lawyer Randy Piercey questioned Muise about whether or not she had reported to dispatch that she had an intoxicated person in her vehicle, and about the woman’s disclosure of the alleged sexual assault.
“She was able to describe the man from a month prior, how much she had had to drink, where she was at the start of the night. She didn’t seem to have trouble with her memory,” Piercey said.
“She gave me enough for a complaint,” Muise replied.
Piercey and co-counsel Jon Noonan did not make any opening remarks Wednesday.
Snelgrove’s trial will resume this morning, when the complainant will take the stand.