Man accused of violently assaulting ex used reasonable force, judge rules

A judge has acquitted a Winnipeg man accused of violently assaulting his former girlfriend, accepting his evidence that he used reasonable force to remove her from his pickup truck after she refused his repeated demands to leave.

The alleged victim claimed the man, a former sheriff’s officer, threatened to kill her while punching and choking her, but she chose to remain in the vehicle.

“I do not believe her version of events (and) find that she augmented her evidence,” provincial court Judge Rachel Rusen said in a written decision issued earlier this week.

“(Her) evidence is that she deliberately chose to remain in the truck with (the accused) after being punched, choked twice and threatened with death and more violence,” Rusen said. “I do not find her evidence credible when her own evidence is that he asked her multiple times to get out of the truck.”

Rusen ruled the 60-year-old man used only the amount of force necessary to remove her from his property, the pickup truck.

“Given (the accused’s) experience as a sheriff and his decades of working in security, I find his evidence that he knows about reasonable force to be credible and reliable,” Rusen said. “He has experience with physical altercations and with difficult individuals.”

The woman testified at trial she had been dating the man for four months and that they were sitting in his truck outside her home July 28, 2024, shortly after 2 a.m., when he told her their relationship was over and demanded three or more times that she get out of his truck.

The woman said she refused to leave, claiming she wanted to calm the man down and continue talking.

The woman said she was looking out the windshield when “out of nowhere” the man punched her in the jaw with a closed fist and said he was going to kill her, then pinned her to her seat and choked her for 10 seconds.

“(Her) evidence is that she told (the man) he needed to calm down,” Rusen said. “She acknowledges that she still refused to leave his truck.”

The woman claimed the man choked her two more times and slammed the passenger door on her legs three or four times before she ran out of the truck and into her house.

The man testified he and the woman had an unresolved discussion in the truck about their relationship after which he told her he wanted to go for a drive alone and asked her six times to get out of the truck.

The man said the woman threw his cellphone out the window after which he exited the truck, walked to the passenger door and told her he was going to use “reasonable force” to get her out.

The man “is clear he held her as gently as he could to get her out and he was convinced there was no other way to get her out of his truck,” Rusen said.

Rusen said she found much of the woman’s testimony implausible, including a claim she had never met a woman she accused the man of having an affair with and questioned her recall of events, which was more detailed in court than it was when she provided a police statement following the incident.

The woman, who at the time worked as a karaoke host, claimed she was unable to speak for a week or sing for two weeks following the attack.

“As a karaoke host, not being able to sing for two weeks should certainly affect her ability to work,” Rusen said. “There is a gap in evidence regarding her inability to (speak or sing) that concerns me as to the veracity of her testimony,” Rusen said.

The woman provided undated photos to court showing injuries she supposedly sustained in the attack, but none showing her face, neck or legs, Rusen said.

“There are no date stamps on any of the photos she tendered, nor any evidence to satisfy the court beyond a reasonable doubt that these photos relate to the allegations before the court,” she said.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca