“Someone lied to me! This is what Judge Bertrand Saint-Arnaud said during arguments in the case of the South Shore police officer accused of sexually assaulting a citizen.
Posted at 7:27pm
“Surely someone lied. In some files it is less obvious. But here I think it’s essentially clear that there is someone who lied to me this week […]. The two versions are difficult to reconcile,” the judge said Thursday at the Longueuil courthouse as lawyers presented their final arguments in Yannick Dauphinais’ trial.
The officer and the woman – who cannot be identified due to a court order – met at a gas station in La Prairie on July 20, 2021. After the officer approached her, the officer suggested the woman follow her to the IGA, where she walked, a few yards away. There he asked her for her phone number.
The next day, the defendant texted the woman to offer to visit her home for a few minutes. She agreed, but stated that she should leave her residence quickly for her work.
The woman claims the officer kissed her on the mouth and stroked her buttocks and breasts. He would have taken her hand to point it at her crotch and asked for a “treat.” In order to avoid being given oral sex or being penetrated, the applicant agreed to masturbate him for two minutes until he ejaculated. She feared the reaction of the man with whom she had discussed less than 10 minutes the day before, she explained in court.
Rather, Yannick Dauphinais claimed that the two, the defendant and the applicant, had had a “flirt” and that he had “love at first sight” for the smiling woman with the sparkling eyes. He claimed that she was the “enterprising one” who kissed him and moved her hand to his penis.
“Aggravating” or “Fictionalized” Facts?
On Thursday, the defendant’s attorney, Me Félix R. Larose, alleged that the applicant had a “tendency to exacerbate” the facts. Rather, Me Amélie Rivard, Crown Prosecutor, argued that the accused presented a “romanticized” version of events.
Me Larose transmitted text messages which the applicant exchanged with friends a few hours after giving the police officer her number. She wrote that she was arrested by the agent, who was then an employee of the Roussillon Inter-communal Police Department.
“The plaintiff has no respect for the truth,” pleaded Me Larose. “There’s a way of presenting the facts to your friends that doesn’t square with what happened,” he said. “It’s strange, it’s worrying,” he added.
Me Larose argued that even though the applicant and her friends condemned the police officer’s actions, she still responded to a text message from the accused.
“Not only will she answer, but she will invite him to come to her house alone without calling anyone. She agrees to see him again. It’s a suggestion she agrees to. She adapts to him when he comes home and she will even hurry up,” Me Larose said.
For her part, Me Amélie Rivard categorically rejected the “flirt” thesis. “I suggest to you that if there was any flirting, it was one-sided,” she said.
“What does the evidence suggest regarding the visit [chez elle], it is the accused who invites himself to Madame and Madame nods again. Madam nods when [il] The limits. Madam nods when [il] asks him to follow her to the IGA, Madame nods as [il] invites himself to his home,” said the prosecutor, speaking of one person “imposing” on the other.
The prosecution also discredited the defendant, who “failed to admit that his function could have influenced the applicant’s perception”.
The applicant told the court that she had confidence because Yannick Dauphinais was a police officer and was on duty when he showed up at her home.
In the hours following the events, the applicant confided in a friend and her boss. The latter encouraged her to go to a police station. The Office of Independent Investigations conducted the investigation.
Judge Bertrand Saint-Arnaud is due to make his decision on July 3 in the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield district.