'I did not consent,' complainant testifies at police sexual assault trial
Complainant stands firm as gruelling 4-day cross-examination focused on her credibility ends
A gruelling, four-day cross-examination of the complainant in the trial of three Toronto police officers accused of sexual assault has come to an end with the defence attempting to cast doubt on the woman's credibility and memory.
Lawyers for all three defendants attempted to portray the complainant as being attracted to the officers leading up to the alleged assault, consenting to sexual activity with them, then being embarrassed and worried about her reputation afterwards.
The complainant firmly rejected this portrayal throughout the cross-examination that began last Wednesday.
Leslie Nyznik, Sameer Kara and Joshua Cabero, officers at 51 Division, are accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague in a hotel room in 2015.
The complainant is a Toronto parking enforcement officer whose identity is protected by a publication ban.
On Monday, her memory was once again under the microscope with the lawyers for Kara and Cabero attempting to point out holes in the complainant's story while looking for elements that may benefit their clients.
In a key exchange Monday morning, Alan Gold — who is representing Kara — focused on the video of Nyznik, Cabero and the complainant exiting a taxi at the Westin Harbour Castle Toronto Hotel, where the alleged assault occurred.
Last week, the woman testified that during the taxi ride to the hotel she began to feel sick, with an "excruciating headache," loss of vision and memory, and that she felt like she was in a "Star Trek warp."
She also testified that at that point she told herself she would not be drinking anymore that evening.
"Then, why are we seeing [the complainant] entering the hotel," Gold asked.
"Why is [the complainant] getting out of the taxi," Gold continued with his voice rising. "Why is [the complainant] not sitting in the taxi to take the taxi home?"
"I have no memory of it," she responded.
Gold stayed on the matter of the complainant's memory and physical state the night of the alleged assault.
The video of the three entering the hotel appears to show the complainant walking normally and talking to the officers. She testified she has no memory of this time.
Inside the hotel room, during the alleged assault, she testified her memory is spotty.
The complainant left the hotel room roughly three hours later at about 3:30 a.m.
At 3:43 a.m., the complainant sent a text message to a friend that read: "R u back? Need ur help."
"You reflect, compose and send the text message," Black told the court.
The complainant testified she also has no memory of sending the text message.
Gold compared it to the video of the complainant entering the hotel, as another voluntary, physical act she has no memory of.
"Well, is it not possible that the same is true of what took place in between? That in the hotel room you voluntarily participated in acts that you do not remember," he asked.
The complainant disagreed.
"Because the parts I do remember, I did not consent to," she testified.
Gold continued, and in a question that seemed to sum up the defence's view of the alleged assault, asked:
"Why isn't it a reasonable possibility that you are not a victim of a crime but a victim of the alcohol diminishing your inhibitions and the alcoholic impairment of your memory?
"I did not consent of what happened in that hotel room," she answered.
Complainant looked 'buzzed'
Following the end of the complainant's time in the witness box, the Crown called its next witness.
Elias Tissawak, a Toronto Police officer, was the first person other than the complainant to provide the court with testimony about the night of the alleged assault.
Tissawak was one of a number of officers attended a police party at several downtown bars on Jan. 16, 2015.
In video footage showed to the court last week, he can be seen escorting an intoxicated officer Kara back to the Westin Harbour Castle hotel.
"Every few metres, he's throwing up," Tissawak said of Kara at the hotel.
He also testified that the complainant was "drunk" later on that evening.
Guided by questions from prosecutor Philip Perlmutter, Tissawak said he noticed the complainant was walking more slowly and slurring her speech.
But that statement appears to contradict what Tissawak told the complainant a day later.
In his cross examination, Harry Black, representing Nyznik, pointed to a series of text messages between Tissawak and the complainant.
"You looked buzzed but not drunk," one of Tissawak's messages says.
"That's the truth, isn't it?" Black asked, attempting to back up the defence's suggestion that the woman was not as intoxicated as she testified.
"According to the text message, yes," Tissawak answered.
Flirting at the table?
Tissawak was part of a group of officers, including the complainant, Nyznik and Cabero, who went to to the Brass Rail strip club the night in question.
Last week, the defence suggested that at the Brass Rail the complainant told Nyznik and Cabero she wanted to go to the hotel room and have sex with both of them.
The defence also suggested the complainant touched Nyznik while the group had drinks at a table.
The complainant denied both suggestions last week and on Monday Tissawak testified he didn't witness it.
"Did you see anyone else at the table touching anyone else?" Perlmutter asked Tissawak.
"No," the witness replied.
"Did you hear anyone flirting with anyone else?"
"No."
The trial continues Tuesday.