Judge rules Jian Ghomeshi not guilty on sexual assault charges, casts doubt on alleged victims' stories
TORONTO — A judge on Thursday found a former Canadian Broadcasting Corp. radio host not guilty of sexual assault in a case that had sparked a nationwide conversation about consent and sexual harassment.
Jian Ghomeshi had faced four counts of sexual assault and one count of choking based on alleged incidents involving three women. He is the former host of "Q," a popular radio show on culture heard in Canada and on many U.S. public stations.
Justice William Horkins acquitted Ghomeshi on all charges, saying it is difficult to have trust in witnesses who selectively or deliberately suppressed information.
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He said the three women were less than full, frank and forthcoming.
"There is no tangible evidence. There is no DNA. There is no 'smoking gun'...it is impossible to determine, with any acceptable degree of certainty or comfort, what is true and what is false," Horkin wrote.
He added, "the cross-examination dramatically demonstrated that each complainant was less than full, frank and forthcoming in the information they provided to the media, to the police, to Crown counsel and to this Court."
Police launched an investigation in 2014 after more than 12 women contacted various media sources to allege that Ghomeshi had assaulted them.
Ghomeshi, who first gained fame as a member of the 1990s satirical pop band Moxy Fruvous, then defended himself in a 1,500-word statement on Facebook, saying women consented to having "rough sex" with him and that he was the victim of a disgruntled ex-girlfriend. The CBC fired him.
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Ghomeshi still faces another sex assault trial based on allegations from a fourth complainant in June.
The first woman to testify in the trial acknowledged that she emailed Ghomeshi a bikini-clad picture of herself a year after he allegedly sexually assaulted her, pulling her hair and punching her in the head. She claimed on the witness stand to have forgotten about the email and another flirtatious email she sent a year after.
Television actress Lucy DeCoutere, the second woman to testify, acknowledged that she told Ghomeshi that she wanted to have sex with him a day after he allegedly choked and slapped her.
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DeCoutere also acknowledged she sent Ghomeshi flowers days after the alleged assault.
And in a handwritten love letter days later she wrote: "I love your hands."
In his judgment, Justice Horkin wrote critically about DeCoutere's testimony.
"Ms. DeCoutere testified that after the weekend in Toronto in July 2003,she definitely knew that she did not want to have a romantic relationship with Mr. Ghomeshi. She gave us her 'guarantee' under oath that she had no romantic feelings for Mr. Ghomeshi.
Even in her late disclosure, just prior to taking the stand, Ms. DeCoutere claimed that any personal contact with Mr. Ghomeshi following the Canada Day long-weekend in 2003 was simply an attempt to"flatten out [her] negative." She maintained that any emails that she sent to Mr. Ghomeshi following that weekend were "indifferent" in tone and not "playful", as they had been previously.
"Once again this was simply not true. In an email sent just two weeks later, on July 17, 2003, Ms. DeCoutere told Mr. Ghomeshi that he was 'magic.' On July 25, 2003, three weeks after the alleged assault, she wrote to Mr.Ghomeshi that she was 'really glad to know you.' On April 6, 2004, she wrote an email to Mr. Ghomeshi suggesting help with 'an itch that you need… scratching.'
"On October 19, 2005, she sent him what she described herself as a 'ridiculous, sexualized photo' of herself with the neck of a beer bottle in her mouth simulating an act of fellatio. As recently as September 8, 2010, she posted a Facebook message fondly recalling the 2003 Canada Day weekend.'"
DeCoutere, who waived her right to have her name not published, testified that she didn't remember the emails.
Justice Horkin theorized that DeCoutere was invested in being the "heroine" of the anti-Ghomeshi movement and cited emails she wrote to the other victims in which she wrote she wanted to see that Ghomeshi was "fucking decimated" and stated, "the guy's a shit show, time to flush."
The third witness in the case, whose name is protected by a publication ban, acknowledged that she deliberately misled police when she didn't tell them that she had engaged in some sexual activity with Ghomeshi after the alleged assault took place. The woman testified that she had trouble breathing after Ghomeshi put his hands around her neck as they were making out in a Toronto park.
--Heidi Moore contributed to this report
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Heidi Moore is a Business Editor at Mashable. She directs a team of reporters and editors in creating richly reported, smart and entertaining stories about media, startups, advertising, careers and Social Good that show that business is really a reflection of life and what we value in it.Heidi was previously a finance and economics editor at the Guardian, New York bureau chief and Wall Street correspondent at Marketplace Radio, and a financial reporter at the Wall Street JournalShe loves yoga, rooftops and taking photographs of everything.
