Firefighter denies sexually assaulting women during testimony; claims sex was consensual

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This article was published 02/06/2020 (1965 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg firefighter and martial arts instructor on trial accused of sexually assaulting two women testified he had consensual sex with both women, telling court he was “shocked” when one of his accusers pursued him romantically.

“For the most part, she was always the one to initiate (sex),” Manuel Ruiz said of one accuser, describing their relationship as “friends with benefits.”

Ruiz, 54, is on trial charged with nine offences, including sexual assault, uttering threats and forcible entry dating back more than 20 years.

In testimony last week, a now 46-year-old woman told court she first met Ruiz when she was 12 and they were both taking classes at the same taekwondo studio. She alleged they maintained a friendship through her teen years and into her 20s.

She told court when she was 25, Ruiz sexually assaulted her in her apartment and continued to have sex with her against her will on other occasions at his home and martial arts studio.

Ruiz testified Tuesday he didn’t remember meeting the woman before 1997 or 1998 when she jogged past a Sherbrook Street patio where he had been sharing drinks with some of his jiu-jitsu students.

Over time, the two became friends, Ruiz said, with the woman making the first sexual overture during a visit to her apartment for tea in 2002.

“We talked for a while,” he said. “When I told her I had to go she reached up and kissed me. I was pretty shocked that she would do that. I responded and we kept kissing.”

Ruiz said they stopped short of sex, with him telling the woman he had to go.

“I don’t know if I was having second thoughts… I believe I had a date that night,” he said.

Some days later, the woman invited Ruiz to a Grosvenor Avenue bed and breakfast where she was working and the two had sex, Ruiz said.

“She asked me if I wanted to finish what we started,” he said. “I knew what she meant by that.”

Ruiz testified the woman provided him with a booking schedule at the bed and breakfast so he would know when it was safe to come over for sex.

The woman denied ever having consensual sex with Ruiz, telling court last week he threatened to burn her mother’s house down and poison her dogs if she did not comply with his sexual demands.

The woman alleged Ruiz forced her to lodge his teenage son at the bed and breakfast for a number of weeks. When, on her boss’s order, she kicked the boy out, Ruiz came to the bed and breakfast and broke down the door with a shovel, the woman said.

The woman ran out the back way and called her uncle for help. When they returned to the building with police, they found Ruiz sitting on the couch, calmly sipping tea, the woman said.

Ruiz told court Tuesday he had asked if his son could stay at the bed and breakfast and he agreed to pay her $1,500 for a month’s rent.

“Things were good between us at the time, she was very agreeable,” he said.

Ruiz said he returned to the bed and breakfast two weeks later after his son told him he had arrived to find all his belongings on the porch. He said he and his son were sitting in the living room having tea when the woman arrived with her uncle and two police officers.

“They said I was under arrest for trespassing,” Ruiz said. “I was in disbelief.”

Ruiz said he had been sitting handcuffed in a police cruiser for half an hour when an officer returned with his still-uncashed cheque and told him he could press charges against the woman.

“I said no, I just never want to talk to her again,” he said.

Ruiz suggested the incident was prompted by his reaction a week earlier, when at a Corydon Avenue restaurant, she broached the topic of marriage.

“I laughed and she started crying and ran out of the restaurant,” he said. “I thought it was just friends with benefits. It was never formalized. It was never anything else.”

A second, now 35-year-old woman told court last week she and Ruiz had been dating for a short time when he pushed her to have sex with three men, saying “You’ll do this if you love me.”

The woman said she lived with Ruiz for a few months in 2006, during which time he would often lock her alone in his bedroom for up to eight hours.

She said in 2009, she was visiting Ruiz at his home when, after giving her massage, he sexually assaulted her.

Testifying Tuesday, Ruiz denied sexually assaulting the woman, locking her in his bedroom and pushing her into sex with other men.

Ruiz said the two only lived together three weeks and had sex just three or four times.

“I was going through a lot at the time and wasn’t always able to perform,” he said.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca