Carlos Moosomin was set to face trial Tuesday for a nine-year-old sexual assault case.
But the day before, in only a matter of hours, the case against him crumbled.
Moosomin’s two co-accused, Kenneth Crowe Jr. and Charles Morin, pleaded guilty to sexual assault Monday morning at Prince Albert’s Court of Queen’s Bench. Moosomin’s lawyer, Mary McAuley, moved to subpoena both of them to testify at her client’s trial.
“They both told me my client was not there,” McAuley said. “They were willing to testify on his behalf. They don’t know how his name was pulled into it.”
The assault occurred in July 2008 on Wahpeton First Nation. McAuley said that her client has always “vehemently denied” his alleged role in the incident.
The two co-accused are cousins of Moosomin’s, but McAuley said they do not know him well.
She also had other ammunition to mount a strong defence. She said the victim had difficulty identifying her client during an earlier hearing. Another witness, now deceased, apparently said he wasn’t even on the reserve at the time, McAuley said.
“You have a complainant at the preliminary hearing that said ‘I don’t even know if that’s him,’ so identity is an issue,” she said. “And you have two co-accused who said he wasn’t there.”
She took that information to the Crown prosecutor, who, according to McAuley’s account, said they would “take the matter into consideration.”
On Monday afternoon, the Crown entered a stay of proceedings, which essentially drops the charges against Moosomin.
Crowe and Morin are due to face sentencing on October 30.
