Forced into prostitution, beaten, sexually abused: A woman told police she had been tormented by a pimp for two years. In court, however, the complainant swore to have fabricated the whole affair to get revenge on Jeff Monestime, who was thus acquitted in full on Wednesday.
Posted at 5:08pm
Louis Samuel Perron The Press
“This general denial of the accusatory testimony was presented by the applicant with confidence and aplomb,” Judge Pierre Dupras concluded Wednesday afternoon at the Montreal Courthouse. Unable to distinguish true from false between the original complaint and the applicant’s testimony in court, the judge gave the accused a reasonable doubt and acquitted him of all charges. He had been detained since August 2021.
The charges against Jeff Monestime (aka Jeff Monestine) were very serious: human trafficking, procuring, sexual assault including strangling, and assault.
But once in court, the woman claimed under oath that she had lied to the police all along. Faced with this reversal, the Crown used the plaintiff’s affidavit as evidence to try to prove the guilt of the 38-year-old Montrealer, who was being defended by Me Marie-Hélène Giroux.
In her first complaint, the complainant said Jeff Monestime asked her to sleep with clients at a massage parlor in December 2018. but eventually returned to him.
At that time, Jeff Monestime was receiving not only all of the applicant’s earnings from prostitution, but also her PKU and child support, she told police.
“She had nothing left and had to ask him for everything. Then you have to break her to build her up again, he said, and he had to hit her to make her understand. He kicked, hit, and sometimes strangled her during spiritual delusions. He also threatened to have her killed in the Dominican Republic or to inject her with battery acid,” the judge summarized the plaintiff’s lawsuit.
The woman also claimed to have been strangled, beaten and sodomized by Jeff Monestime after refusing sex. At one point, he gave her the “sleep hold” and banged her head on the ground, causing a concussion, she said.
In court, the plaintiff testified that she used the fact that Jeff Monestime had already been charged with procuring to fabricate the whole story. But after a few weeks, she wanted to withdraw her complaint.
“In the end, it was the aftermath and the time in jail that made her come out and say she lied [sa déclaration]. She didn’t think it would all happen, she wanted revenge on him,” the judge said.
Me Marie-Josée Thériault represented the Public Ministry.