As more and more stories break the news about police officers sexually assaulting civilians, it’s obvious that this isn’t a recent ‘trend’ by any means. People in power have been using their power to assault and abuse other people, and what is easier than assaulting someone and then being the police they have to report it to? Not only does it dissuade sexual assault victims from coming forward about their assault, but it enables the system of officers assaulting people to continue.
In 2015, a female officer from Toronto accused three fellow police officers of gang sexual assault, reporting that Leslie Nyznik, Sameer Kara and Joshua Cabero all raped her at a hotel in Toronto.
After the trial had been dragged out for more than a year with extended hearings, the trial by jury was set to begin on Wednesday.
However, after the court returned from lunch break, the Crown announced that the defense was planning on having a trial by judge alone. A trial by judge alone means that the case is more likely to fall in their favor, as a single person is easier to sway than a whole jury.
While there was no reason given for the change, it is allowed for accused people to change the trial layout. The trial has once again been delayed, but now it plans to start next Monday.
It’s a sad example of the lack of justice for sexual assault victims. Not only is it extremely unlikely for the three men to see any jail time, it’s also been dragged out several years. This woman hasn’t been allowed to move on with her life, and now has to relive everything on the stand, again, and the trial is just beginning.
The other issue is the amount of time that passes between the event and cases. Memories fade, and this incident happened in 2015, and we’re currently halfway through 2017. Her memory might be faded, and something like that can be all the defense needs to prove that their clients are innocent. It’s all about dragging it out, hoping that the victim finally settles and or drops the case because they just don’t want to deal with it in their life anymore.
This whole case is a perfect example of how unjust sexual assault cases usually turn out to be. Two years after the fact, and we’ve had the trial changed to a judge only trial, and now the chance is decently high that the police officers all get to walk, after assaulting a fellow officer.
