UCC teacher acquitted of sex assault charges

A judge has acquitted a retired Upper Canada College teacher of sexual assault, saying the complainant was not credible. The 28- year- old accuser, who cannot be named by court order, is the scion of a wealthy Toronto family and himself faces sex charges. He was extradited to California last week for allegedly videotaping “ lewd acts” of himself and a young boy he planned to adopt.

“ I’m just relieved that this part of it is over,” Herbert Sommerfeld, 69, said as he was congratulated by friends on his acquittal outside the College Park courtroom yesterday.

His lawyer, Joseph Di Luca added: “ This has been an absolutely crushing emotional, financial and public burden that’s been placed on him.” Sommerfeld is still named in a $ 19 million lawsuit launched by his accuser against UCC teachers and the school. The complainant alleged that Sommerfeld took advantage of his adulation and love to sexually assault him in classrooms at the exclusive mid- town school an average of three times a week from 1985 to 1989 while he was between the ages of 9 and 13. But provincial court Justice Charles Vaillancourt found his evidence raised too many disturbing flags. He was a “ very controlling witness who presented a rather neat package,” the judge said in his ruling. He seemed to try to take over the presentation of his evidence in chief from Crown prosecutor Mary Humphrey, the judge said. Under cross-examination by Di Luca, however, he became “ much more elusive,” Vaillancourt added. The man, who had studied law at the University of London and Harvard University and who had gone into minute details about the alleged abuse, suddenly couldn’t recall details regarding his own legal troubles, Vaillancourt said.

“ It’s interesting that the complainant only came to realize that he had been sexually abused after he had been denied bail and was in custody and speaking to other inmates.” The judge said the complainant was also playing a “ bit of a song and dance” when it came to testifying about his California charges. In particular, he was “ playing dumb” about what was allegedly in the videotapes of

himself and the boy in

California. “This witness was very evasive,”

Vaillancourt said.

“ He would not come

out with an answer until it was dragged out of

him by counsel.”

Di Luca said outside court that he had never before seen a judge deliver such a strongly worded rejection of a complainant’s testimony in a criminal case. Sommerfeld is not the first former UCC teacher to face criminal allegations of sex assault against pupils. Douglas Brown, 55, was convicted of nine counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency in January and sentenced to three years in jail.