Judge finds Halifax cabbie not guilty of sexually assaulting passenger

The judge — who is under investigation for a ruling he gave in a different sexual assault case involving a taxi driver earlier this year — said Thursday the 26-year-old passenger in the Milad case was a credible witness, and he believes she was sexually assaulted.

“She was sexually assaulted. There can be no doubt about it,” he told the court. “But, do I have a doubt about the identify of the taxi driver that assaulted (her)? Absolutely.”

The judge’s not guilty verdict Thursday hinged on what he described as two holes in the case against Milad.

The first revolved around the route the taxi took from downtown Halifax to the woman’s neighbourhood.

Yellow Cab, the dispatcher, provided the GPS map of Milad’s taxi route on the night the woman was assaulted, but that route was different than the directions the complainant testified the taxi took after she flagged it down, Lenehan said.

The routes were “markedly different,” the judge said, with one heading north of the Halifax Citadel and passing the Scotiabank Centre and Emera Oval, while the other passed the new library on Spring Garden Road.

“It’s more than just the street names being different,” Lenehan said. “The landmarks are so strikingly differently it would be almost impossible to think (the GPS route supported the passenger’s evidence).”

The other flaw in the Crown’s case was that the complainant’s debit transactions weren’t analyzed to see if there were any from Milad’s cab, he said.

“Did anybody think to check the debit transaction?” the judge asked, pointing out that the investigation failed to track down whether her payment was credited to Milad’s account.

Defence lawyer Thomas Singleton called the judge’s decision “detailed” and “thorough.”

He said the police in the case had tunnel vision, focusing on his client and ignoring other possibilities, and didn’t track down other leads.

“The judge was quite critical of the way the police investigated the matter,” Singleton said. “If the police had done their work properly, they probably could have gotten the right person.”

The key evidence put forward by the Crown was a business card the complainant obtained at the end of the ride.

But the judge suggested that the perpetrator may have “impersonated” Milad, using one of his business cards.

“That could explain the rather curious act of a driver giving her a business card with his name on it after kissing her without permission and then groping her bum,” Lenehan said. “The Crown speculates that Mr. Milad is so devious as to turn off his meter early but readily hand out his business card.”

While the judge acknowledged that he was speculating, he said the case is built on “circumstantial evidence” and reminded the court that the onus is on the Crown to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty.

The complainant was not present for the verdict.

The judge said the woman gave clear, cogent answers and offered thoughtful, careful and consistent testimony.

“Her assailant was discoverable,” Lenehan said. “He should have been identified properly.”

Milad testified in his own defence, denying through an Arabic interpreter that the woman was ever in his vehicle.

He broke down in tears Thursday as the judge told him he was “free to leave” Halifax provincial court.

“His life has been on hold for the past year,” Singleton, his lawyer, said, adding that he now plans to finish his doctoral thesis in engineering. “He was extremely relieved.”

The decision is the latest in a series of court rulings against Halifax taxi drivers accused of sexual assault. Police said last year there had been 14 reported sexual assault cases involving cab drivers in the city over the previous four years.

In March, Lenehan acquitted another taxi driver accused of sexually assaulting a passenger, Bassam Al-Rawi, in a decision that is now the subject of an investigation by a three-member review committee appointed by Nova Scotia’s chief justice.

Lenehan’s choice of words in the Al-Rawi case set off a storm of social media criticism, a letter-writing campaign calling for a judicial council investigation and two public protests.

Lenehan said the Crown in the Al-Rawi case had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the woman, who had been drinking and had no memory of what happened, did not consent to sexual activity with the driver. He said that “clearly, a drunk can consent.”

The Crown is seeking an appeal of Lenehan’s decision in the Al-Rawi case. A hearing is scheduled before the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal for Nov. 22.

Brett Bundale, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press