Crown appeals Jabbour verdict
The Crown has appealed a verdict that found a former high school music teacher not guilty on two counts of sexual exploitation involving a former student.
Those charges were the latest Roger James Jabbour was facing involving allegations from former students while he was the band teacher at Colonel Gray High School in Charlottetown.
Last week, Crown attorney Valerie Moore filed a notice of appeal that will ask the court to set aside Chief provincial court judge Nancy Orr’s decision and enter convictions on both charges or order a new trial.
The allegations dated back to a period between April 1991 and February 1992 with the complainant testifying about what she said Jabbour did, including kissing her and masturbating in front of her.
Jabbour denied the allegations.
When Orr gave her decision after the trial, she said she found the complainant was a credible witness who was being honest with her testimony.
Orr also said she wasn’t satisfied the complainant’s evidence was sufficiently reliable and she was left with reasonable doubt.
In her notice of appeal, Moore said Orr erred in law by not applying the standard of reasonable doubt to the evidence as a whole.
Orr erred by isolating one area of the evidence and considering it piecemeal, Moore wrote.
The notice of appeal also addressed Orr’s analysis of the complainant’s reliability and said she erred by considering irrelevant factors and evidence that the court found to be insignificant.
Moore also wrote that Orr erred by applying improper considerations, in particular, myths and stereotypes, when assessing the complainant’s reliability.
After the trial, Orr said she didn’t find Jabbour to be a credible witness and she didn’t believe his evidence.
But, she also found issues with the complainant’s testimony after the woman said she had no further contact with Jabbour after graduation.
The defence presented letters to the court that the woman sent to Jabbour over several years after graduation.
Orr said the letters showed the complainant was clearly wrong about how she ended things with the accused.
Jabbour is still awaiting sentencing before Judge John Douglas on two counts of sexual exploitation and one count of sexual interference involving three other former students.