Friend of complainant takes the stand

The lawyer for a former taxi driver accused of sexually assaulting two women pressed the friend of one of them on details of her testimony Tuesday, asking her if she was prejudiced against Middle Eastern men.

The woman, 21, flew to St. John’s from Ottawa to testify at the sexual assault trial of Lulzim (Leon) Jakupaj, 33, in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court.

Jakupaj is alleged to have forcibly kissed and attempted to pull down the pants of the woman’s 19-year-old female friend after he drove the pair and other friends home after a night out in March 2016, despite her requests for him to stop.

On cross-examination, Jakupaj’s lawyer, Amanda Summers, asked the witness about a statement she had given to police about a year ago, in which she said the driver of the taxi was especially intimidating given that he “was Arab or Middle Eastern.”

Jakupaj is originally from Kosovo.

“I’m not racist,” the woman said. “I was engaged to one. It’s just a different culture, a culture clash. I had a bad experience with one.”

“So you have a prejudice?” Summers asked.

“I do not. Like I said, I am not a racist,” the woman replied.

The woman told the court she and the complainant had been among a group of friends who had gone out for drinks downtown before arguing amongst themselves and deciding to get a City Wide cab home.

The driver was attempting to calm them down, she said, offering to get some weed. After the woman decided she wanted out of the cab not far from home, the driver and the complainant turned around to find her and pick her up.

Once at the home, the woman said, she and the complainant were in the bathroom in the basement apartment while their friends were upstairs. The driver — whom she identified in court as Jakupaj — came into the apartment and asked the complainant if he could talk to her, she testified. The complainant left the bathroom to speak to him.

The woman said she heard her friend say, “Please stop, get off me, I said no,” and heard Jakupaj say, “Just one kiss.”

“I do remember him asking for a hug from her,” the woman told the court.

She said she opened the bathroom door and saw the driver push the complainant against a wall or door.

“I went to see what was going on. He told me to go back to the washroom,” the woman said. “I didn’t know what to do … it was overwhelming. I just stood there by the washroom door.”

A few seconds later, the complainant came back into the bathroom and locked the door, the woman said.

“I remember her standing there frozen, she wasn’t speaking to me,” she testified.

The complainant began crying and explained what had happened, she said, and then the pair went upstairs to join their friends. The cab driver had left.

Summers questioned the woman about how much alcohol she had consumed on the night in question, and about inconsistencies between her testimony and her statement to police, given a year ago.

“The brain blocks off what you don’t want it to remember,” the woman responded.

“So you’re remembering things better while you’re here testifying for your friend?” Summers asked.

“Absolutely,” the woman replied.

“I didn’t lie to police. I don’t know who in their right mind would lie about a situation like this unless they’re sick in the head.”

The woman testified she had not spoken to the complainant from the time of the alleged assault until last week, when she contacted her to ask for a ride from St. John’s airport.

When Summers asked her if she had seen any local media reports about Jakupaj’s case, the woman replied, “No, I don’t like the city, I don’t like the people, everyone is rude, so I don’t check or pay attention.”

The complainant, who testified last week, was the second alleged victim to take the stand at Jakupaj’s trial. A 24-year-old woman told the court Jakupaj had picked her up one night in the spring of 2016 on Water Street after she had spent a night out with friends, and upon pulling into her driveway, he grabbed the back of her neck and forced his tongue into her mouth.

Jakupaj is currently serving a four-year sentence for a break-in during the same time period, in which he followed a female passenger into a house after dropping her off.