Frank Stronach trial: Crown drops three sex assault complainants as defence starts its case

Sexual assault charges against auto parts billionaire Frank Stronach involving three of his seven accusers have been abandoned by the Crown because, after their testimony, there is no longer a prospect of finding him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The decision was announced by Crown prosecutor Jelena Vlacic first thing Monday morning, in advance of the defence starting to call its witnesses. The Crown’s prosecution evidence came to a close last week.

One of the dropped complainants had an emotional breakdown on the witness stand and gave evidence that was so rambling and “garbled,” as Judge Anne Molloy once described it, that she excused the witness from her cross-examination.

Another showed up on her second day of testimony wanting to apologize for lying to the court that she had not read a crucial published media account of an alleged sexual assault by Stronach on a woman who is not involved in this case, and then had to be told by Molloy to stop justifying herself because this was not “an opportunity to make a speech.” This episode got prosecutors in trouble because at first they just let the testimony into the record despite knowing it was false, prompting a scolding from Molloy.

And another was revealed in cross-examination to have an extensive history of controversial business litigation involving what a civil judge has described as her deceit and dishonesty, and a more recent instance of allegedly falsely reporting to police that a man she had a dispute with threatened to kill her.

Last month, Stronach went to trial on 12 charges in all, including some that predate 1983 when Canada’s sexual assault criminal regime was updated to eliminate the charge of rape. Now he faces seven involving four women. He has pleaded not guilty to all.

Those that remain include two women who said they were employees of Stronach, one as a groom at his equestrian barn and one as a waitress at a bar he owned called Rooney’s, when he allegedly sexually assaulted them after taking them to his waterfront condo. The others were casual acquaintances from Rooney’s, one who alleged he raped her in the condo after a dinner date, another who alleged she went to a different apartment where he attempted to rape her.

One of the dropped complainants described knowing Stronach because her father had been friends with him, and their families had visited together at the Stronach home. Later, as a 21-year-old university student, her mother asked Stronach to get her a summer job at Stronach’s company Magna, and he invited her to dinner at the end of the summer. She testified she felt uncomfortable when he asked if she wanted to see the view from his condo, but she agreed, and that she was “horrified” when he came at her from behind and fondled her breasts.

Her testimony about ending up face down on a bed sparked a dramatic moment when it became clear the witness was referring to preliminary discussions she had recently with prosecutor Vlacic, including about what Vlacic had called “omissions” that the witness made a point of mentioning. This prompted defence counsel Leora Shemesh to say Vlacic was about to make herself a witness, such that the prosecutor herself would have to “take off the robes” and testify about how she prepared her witness. Judge Molloy said she had encouraged the Crown to have another prosecutor prepped to examine this witness, but they did not and was now stuck with this awkward situation, like “water over the dam.” Soon after, the witness said Vlacic had told her in preparation that she had given “inconsistent evidence” about whether she was crying, prompting discussion about whether Vlacic would have to be removed, which Molloy declined to do.

It was the following day that this witness came in wanting to apologize for lying about not reading the article. Defence counsel suggested this sexual encounter did in fact happen, and that the witness regrets it.

Of the other two dropped complainants, the defence position is that the one with the long litigation history had a consensual encounter with Stronach that she has falsely described as assault, and the one who had the emotional breakdown was already the subject of a Crown admission that it no longer had a reasonble prospect of conviction.

Monday’s proceedings continued with defence witnesses, including a condo real estate agent who was familiar with the 33 Harbour Square building where some of the alleged sexual assaults are said to have occurred, and a woman who worked for decades in Stronach’s equestrian barn and testified she had never met the first complainant, who claimed to have worked there at the time of her alleged assault.

• Inside the Crown's teetering case against billionaire Frank Stronach at Toronto rape trial
• Frank Stronach's fierce defence: Billionaire's combative lawyer sets tone for his sex assault trial

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