Rouse loses mistrial applications in sex crime cases

A North Kentville man has lost two applications for mistrials in sex crime cases for which he is awaiting sentencing.

Darrin Phillip Rouse, 52, went before two different judges in Kentville Supreme Court last week, trying to convince them that they should declare mistrials. Rouse alleged that he received ineffective representation by his former lawyer, whom he fired in May on the eve of one of his sentencing dates.

Rouse told Justice Mona Lynch, who convicted him in April of sexual touching for having sex with a 13-year-old girl about a decade ago, that his lawyer didn’t ask the complainant relevant questions that would have allowed him to call Rouse’s son to testify in the case.

He lost that application Thursday, with Lynch saying that Rouse hadn’t presented any evidence that the testimony of his son applied to the charge of which he was convicted. A transcript from the trial showed the lawyer saying the son’s testimony would relate to some of the charges, but not all.

Rouse had been facing five charges at trial but was only convicted on the one.

On Friday, Rouse asked Justice Gregory Warner to declare a mistrial in a separate trial. Warner convicted him in September 2017 of obtaining sexual services for consideration for trading drugs for sex with a woman, and of trafficking in the hydromorphone Dilaudid.

In that case, Rouse said his lawyer didn’t call a person he said was a “key witness” to testify in the trial. He alleged that the witness had been interviewed but that his lawyer forgot to call him.

Rouse said that he expected the witness would tell the court that he hadn’t introduced the complainant to Rouse so she could buy drugs, as she had testified.

But, Warner ruled, “in the context of the court’s analysis and the findings of fact, in my view it would not have changed one iota.”

While Rouse lost both applications, he did succeed in having sentencing in both cases adjourned until later in September. They had been set for the same days as the mistrial applications, but Rouse said he had just obtained a new lawyer in the past week to replace the one he had fired.

After he had fired his lawyer in May, he was denied another certificate from Nova Scotia Legal Aid to hire a new one. He successfully challenged that ruling but said it took him a long time to find a new lawyer.

He represented himself in his mistrial application, with the assistance of one of his sureties.

In between the new dates for sentencing, Rouse is also scheduled for sentencing in another case of obtaining sexual services for consideration.