Woman accusing Montreal doctor of sexual assault is unreliable, defence lawyer argues

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This report includes details that some readers might find disturbing.

A defence lawyer representing a doctor charged with sexually assaulting a young woman described the complainant as unreliable in closing arguments in the trial at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday.

Stephan Probst, 46, and Wendy Devera, 30, are charged with sexual assault with help from each other. The complainant testified last week that she was seeking to experiment sexually with another woman alone when she met Devera through the app Bumble. She also alleged that she was drugged without her knowledge, had difficulty controlling her body and that Probst raped her while she was performing oral sex on Devera.

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He testified this week that while the young woman initially rejected him when he tried to kiss her inside a spa in his penthouse, she later was “receptive” to his touch while she was having sex with Devera on his bed. He said he feels the woman consented to what happened on the bed because she watched as he penetrated her. He also said he considered her moans, while he touched her, to have been a form of consent.

“We are faced with someone who is intelligent, but she is not credible or reliable,” defence attorney Valérie Riendeau told Quebec Court Judge Suzanne Costom.

Riendeau, who is defending the couple with lawyer Ana-Maria Mocanu, highlighted differences in some of the details the complainant told police officers after she arrived back at her apartment, during the preliminary inquiry and when she testified last week.

Riendeau said the woman’s drug consumption “is crucial to the trial” and noted that Joel Lafontaine, a Montreal police officer, wrote in his notepad that the complainant had been offered “GH” in a drink and that she accepted it. Lafontaine testified during the trial twice, saying that if he wrote it he must have heard it, but he was unable to recall whether the complainant told him this or whether he heard it from her boyfriend. Lafontaine also said he was certain that “GH” was a reference to the drug GHB.

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“She said (during the trial) she didn’t tell the police that,” Riendeau said. “I think she did say it to justify the relations she had with Mr. Probst.”

“I’m saying it’s true that she was offered a drink (knowing a drug was mixed into it) and accepted it. She said herself that she doesn’t know much about drugs.”

The complainant said she wasn’t seeking to have sex with a man on Aug. 28, 2020, because she was in a committed relationship at the time.

Probst has worked at the Jewish General Hospital in the past and is currently listed as a chief of nuclear medicine on the CIUSSS West Central Montreal’s website. He is also listed as an assistant professor on McGill University’s website.

When Probst testified, he said he and Devera offered the woman 30 mg of ecstasy and that she accepted it. He referred to it as his “go-to dose” when he had many threesomes with Devera in the past.

A toxicologist who analyzed the complainant’s blood and urine, from samples taken hours after police officers took her to a hospital, told Costom that she found light amounts of alcohol, ecstasy and an antidepressant in her system.

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Near the end of Riendeau’s arguments, the judge asked her why the complainant called her boyfriend, in apparent distress, minutes after she left Probst’s penthouse and told him she was returning to their apartment in an Uber.

Prosecutor Delphine Mauger argued that courts in Canada have been trying to deal with the “myths and stereotypes” of a woman claiming to have been sexually assaulted in order to preserve the relationship she is in. She noted that the complainant and the man she was in a committed relationship with at the time are now just friends.

“Do you think she would do all this to preserve a relationship she is no longer in,” Mauger said, adding the complainant went through filing a complaint with the police, testifying and being cross-examined at the preliminary inquiry and the current trial.

Mauger also said the evidence shows the complainant made it clear, in text messages sent to Devera before they met, that she didn’t want to have sex with a man and was not interested in a threesome.

The prosecutor also questioned Probst’s version of what happened on his bed. She said it was doubtful that the complainant could have seen Probst as he was about to penetrate her while she was performing oral sex on Devera.

“She had no way of knowing because her face was in (the crotch) of Ms. Devera,” Mauger said. “The real question here is did (the complainant) consent to being penetrated in her vagina without protection.”

Mauger noted that the complainant said she rejected Probst at least four times while she was at his penthouse. Probst testified that the woman rejected him when he tried to join in as she and Devera begin kissing each other in his spa. He said the rejections were friendly and didn’t change the mood inside the spa.

“Mr. Probst wanted a threesome with Mrs. Devera and nothing that (the complainant) said would close that door,” Mauger argued.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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