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Directed verdict of not guilty entered after two-day trial in the Ontario Court of Justice, Toronto.\u00a0 P.H.L. attended B Boss bar with friends.\u00a0 During the evening, he was partnered with a young lady who he met a week before at the same bar.\u00a0 The two played drinking games with their friends and eventually the young lady became intoxicated.\u00a0 She was offered to go home with one or more of her friends, but she refused. She left with P.H.L. and no one provided P.H.L. with her home address.\u00a0 P.H.L. took her to his apartment and after an hour she provided her address by typing in to his Uber app.\u00a0 While at her apartment, the two engaged in intimate contact. \u00a0While leaving, P.H.L. encountered the landlord where the young lady was staying and later learned that the landlord wanted to evict the young lady for having a guest over.\u00a0 Shortly after leaving, the young lady became increasingly angry at P.H.L. and blamed him for the eviction and began messaging P.H.L. about her situation.\u00a0 She eventually had to leave the apartment about eight weeks later.\u00a0 She then attended police and charged P.H.L. with three counts of sexual assault.\u00a0 Joseph Neuberger of Neuberger & Partners LLP, Toronto Criminal Lawyers, was retained to defend the charges.\u00a0 Joseph had Diana Davison assist with the defence.\u00a0 The complainant turned over to police selected WeChat messages but did not disclose other communications.\u00a0 Joseph Neuberger was able to obtain from the client, the Uber receipts and money transfers P.H.L. made over the morning hours to the complainant.\u00a0 At trial, Joseph Neuberger cross-examined the complainant on several important issues, but in particular the messaging that had occurred from the time P.H.L. had left her apartment during which she expressed her anger at him for the eviction, blaming him, and her accusations that he took advantage of her.\u00a0 Joseph Neuberger eventually obtained admissions from the complainant that she had been messaging for about two hours with P.H.L. during which time he also sent funds to appease the landlord and to calm down the complainant.\u00a0 She admitted that she did not provide any of the earlier messages to the police.\u00a0 Further, she was unwilling to admit how P.H.L. obtained her address if not from her and how the complainant obtained his WeChat information.\u00a0 Further, Joseph Neuberger was able to suggest that the complainant had manufactured a witness to help her with the issue of her address.\u00a0 That fact demonstrated to the Court, that the complainant was not being truthful.\u00a0 The complainant had tried to manipulate the trial evidence to suggest her friends gave him the address, but he ignored it or changed it in the Uber app to scheme to bring her to his home.\u00a0 However, in cross-examination it came out that in fact her friends had asked her to go with them home, and the complainant refused.\u00a0 No one provided P.H.L. with her home address.\u00a0 P.H.L. had in fact took her in an uber hoping to get her address but instead she just came to his apartment.\u00a0 Later she gave the address and invited him over. This was in complete contrast to her initial statement to police and testimony.\u00a0 There was detailed cross-examination also on her capacity to consent as she claimed she was essentially catatonic for the sexual assaults.\u00a0 Capacity to consent was a main issue given she had consumed a considerable amount of alcohol. However, consumption alone does not mean that she could not consent to sexual activity.\u00a0 In cross-examination, it was established contrary to her statement to police, that she was walking, talking, and making conscious decisions.\u00a0 Thus, at the end of a lengthy and detailed cross-examination, the Crown conceded that P.H.L. should be found not guilty of the three charges of sex assault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","success_category":[118,119],"class_list":["post-30043","success_story","type-success_story","status-publish","hentry","success_category-all-success-stories","success_category-sexual-assault-domestic-assault-and-other-violent-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nrlawyers.com\/6ixDev-v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/success_story\/30043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nrlawyers.com\/6ixDev-v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/success_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nrlawyers.com\/6ixDev-v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/success_story"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nrlawyers.com\/6ixDev-v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"success_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nrlawyers.com\/6ixDev-v2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/success_category?post=30043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}