The lawyer for a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman and causing her bodily harm three years ago grilled the lead police officer on the case in court Wednesday, questioning her on why she hadn't followed up on potentially important pieces of evidence.
Lawyer Mike King is representing 28-year old Max Vivian, who is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in his St. John's basement apartment in September 2015.
"Would you agree, as a police officer, that it's important to keep an open mind? Would you agree that you don't form an opinion first, you obtain all the information first and then form your opinion after reviewing all the information?" King asked RNC Const. Charity Dodd, who acknowledged her agreement.
"Would you agree that sexual assault allegations are difficult to investigate? That oftentimes sexual assaults happen behind closed doors and it's one person's word against another's?" King continued.
"Yes," Dodd replied.
Over the past three days, the court has heard that Vivian and a woman, now 30, had been acquaintances and had reconnected online before moving to a texting relationship and organizing to meet for sex.
The woman took a taxi to Vivian's apartment from out of town Sept. 2, 2015, with the plan to stay for two nights. She told the court she and Vivian engaged in consensual sexual activity, but she asked him to stop when he grew aggressive, grabbing and biting her breasts.
She said he grabbed her by the hair and pushed her into his bedroom, forced her onto the bed and had intercourse with her despite her repeatedly asking him to stop. He then left, she said, and she gathered her belongings and took photos of her injuries before leaving and walking to a nearby school, where she unsuccessfully called her ex-partner to pick her up, before her cellphone battery died. She said she then went back to Vivian's apartment and charged her phone enough to call a taxi to pick her up and take her out of town.
The woman said she went to the hospital in Clarenville two days later, and was transferred to St. Clare's in St. John's, where she underwent a sexual assault exam.
The two nurses who conducted the exam took the stand Wednesday morning, reporting the woman had extensive bruising on her breasts — with some bruises measuring more than four inches long — as well as a bruise on her wrist. A pelvic exam revealed no injuries, the nurses both testified.
Dodd told the court she became involved in the case when the woman was transferred to St. John's and had first met with her about three weeks after the alleged assault, when the woman provided a videoed statement.
Dodd said she first tried to contact Vivian seven months later, and met with him two months after that, when he provided a statement. Dodd said she charged Vivian with sexual assault that same day.
The investigator told the court she had contacted the two taxi companies — the one the woman said she had hired to bring her into town and the one she said she had hired to take her home unexpectedly — about a year after the alleged assault, and asked them for their fare records from the time period in question.
The first taxi service provided documents indicating they had brought the woman to Vivian's east end address on Sept. 2 and picked her up from there and taken her home two days later.
Dodd said the second taxi company told her it had no record of any person being picked up in Vivian's neighbourhood during the time frame specified by the woman on the Wednesday in question. The company representative said it could be possible for the fare to have not been recorded, but only if it was an extremely busy night, which was unlikely for a Wednesday.
"Is there a particular reason why you waited so long (to contact the taxi companies)?" King asked the police officer.
"No. It certainly could have been done sooner. There was no reason," Dodd replied.
King questioned Dodd on why she hadn't gotten a copy of the taxi records for the entire day, why she didn't obtain the woman's medical records from the hospital in Clarenville, why she didn't contact the people living above Vivian's apartment, why she didn't make a stronger effort to contact the woman's ex-partner and why she didn't obtain the woman's phone.
The complainant wrapped up her testimony earlier in the day, reiterating to the court that even though she and Vivian had planned to have sex, she did not consent to it at his apartment.
"Whatever I said (beforehand) in text messages, when it was happening, I said no," she said.
Having called five witnesses to testify, Crown prosecutor Alana Dwyer has now rested her case. It will be King's turn to call evidence when court resumes Thursday morning.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
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