NO CHARGES AFTER BRAWL

Judge finds Jessica Conway not guilty of assault after incident at former Jack Cameron’s in Charlottetown

Judge finds Jessica Conway not guilty of assault after incident at former Jack Cameron’s in Charlottetown

In one version of the story, two strangers assaulted Jessica Conway in a bar’s bathroom.

In the other, the 26-year-old kicked in a stall door in an unprovoked attack.

On Tuesday, provincial court Judge John Douglas found Conway not guilty of assaulting one of the woman involved in the incident.

He came to that conclusion after a trial that saw witnesses give conflicting testimony about what happened in the women’s washroom at the former Jack Cameron’s in Charlottetown on March 19.

Testimony from the alleged victim and her friend detailed Conway kicking in the door to the bathroom stall they were both in and dragging them out.

The alleged victim said she couldn’t remember much after that because she had a concussion from Conway hitting her head on what she was later told was a sink.

It also left her with a potential fracture on her nose, the alleged victim said.

Her friend testified Conway grabbed the woman by the hair and banged her head off the sink five to eight times.

One of Conway’s friends contradicted that version of events, saying it was the women who started yelling at them in the bathroom.

The two pairs of women didn’t know each other or have any contact before the incident.

Conway and her friend testified the alleged victim was the one who initiated an unprovoked attack.

During her testimony, Conway said her lip ring was ripped out part of the way during the attack and one of the women bit her hand.

Investigating officer Const. Mark Woods testified he didn’t see any marks on Conway that night, she didn’t tell him she was assaulted and she didn’t want to give a statement to police.

Woods also said he asked bar staff that night if any of them had evidence to give, but no one came forward to give a statement.

A bouncer from the bar, who didn’t speak to the police about what he saw, told the court he witnessed the alleged victim and her friend hitting Conway when he went into the bathroom.

The bouncer also said one of the women took a swing at him before he kicked them out.

In giving his verdict, Douglas called it a “barroom brawl” and said there was bound to be contradictory testimony in a case like it.

Douglas said he had “great doubt” in the case and found Conway not guilty.