Alleged victim of Montreal basketball coach charged with sexual exploitation testifies

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The trial of one of the three basketball coaches arrested by Montreal police after allegations of sexual abuse at a high school in the St-Laurent borough emerged two years ago began at the Montreal courthouse on Tuesday.

Daniel Lacasse, 45, of Montreal is charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor over whom he was in a position of trust or authority. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 14 years.

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He was the head of École secondaire St-Laurent’s basketball program and an administrator at the school when he was arrested early in 2022. He was also the head coach of the complainant’s team after she had attended the school for a few years.

Prosecutor Jérôme Laflamme began the proceedings by informing Quebec Court Judge Alexandre Dalmau that the Crown’s case will be primarily based on the complainant’s testimony. She was a minor at the time she was allegedly abused and is now over 18. A standard publication ban has been placed on the trial to protect the young woman’s identity.

She began her testimony by saying she first met Lacasse while she was in the sixth grade and had participated in a one-day tournament at École secondaire St-Laurent, which at the time was called École secondaire Emile-Legault.

She said Lacasse approached her on the court after she had finished a game.

“He stopped me and told me he wanted me to play at the high school, that I was a very good player,” the complainant said, adding it became clear to her immediately that Lacasse ran things in the girls basketball program at the school.

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She said Lacasse made important decisions that impacted her directly, like having her promoted after her first year at the high school, and that she ended up playing with older girls despite her wish to remain on a team with girls the same age as her.

Lacasse also helped her out financially when she was injured during a tournament in Boston during which she tore her anterior cruciate ligament and was taken to a hospital by ambulance. She said she received a bill for the ambulance and she knew her mother couldn’t afford to pay it.

Lacasse arranged to have the ambulance paid for and took the teenage girl to see surgeons to find one who was willing to repair her ligament while she was still growing. She also said Lacasse used a credit card to pay for an MRI at a private clinic because of how long it takes to have one done through Quebec’s medicare system.

“i was in survival mode. I needed to eat,” the young woman said in reference to her family’s financial situation. She said Lacasse arranged to find her a job coaching a younger girls team and that she was paid to do fundraising for the basketball program in grocery stores.

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By the time she was in Secondary 4, Lacasse began to show his ugly side, the young young woman said. He would call her names like “c–t’ to her face and he said she was fat while she was recovering from her torn ligament.

“He made it known he was our father,” the complainant said, recalling team meetings with other players who were, like her, the children of immigrants. “He reminded us that he bought our tampons. He utilized the fact our parents weren’t there (at team events) and that we were all immigrants.”

During the time while she was recovering from her injury and was still in Secondary 3, the young woman said Lacasse would have her come to his house to clean and he would feed her. She said it was then that Lacasse began telling her what type of athletic female bodies he was attracted to.

“I was having grownup conversations with him at a young age,” she said.

She said Lacasse would also host Christmas parties and summer BBQs at his house for his female basketball teams, during which liquor was served to minors.

“There was alcohol. It was given to us,” she said.

“Did you drink?” Laflamme asked.

“Yes,” the young woman said.

The complainant will resume her testimony Tuesday afternoon.

Two other coaches at the same school — Charles Xavier Boislard, 47, of Brossard, and Robert Luu, 34, of Laval — were charged at the same time as Lacasse. They each face multiple charges, including sexual assault. Boislard’s trial is set to begin in November and Luu’s is scheduled to start in January.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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