'A script from a movie': Crown slams officer's testimony in closing arguments at TPS sexual assault trial

The prosecution urged an Ontario Superior Court judge not to trust the "scripted" testimony of one of three Toronto police officers accused of sexual assault during closing arguments on Tuesday.

• Defence says 'drunken consent is still consent' in final arguments at police sex assault trial

• 'I did not consent,' complainant testifies at police sexual assault trial

Crown lawyer Philip Perlmutter told the court the complainant, a Toronto Parking enforcement officer, "could not and did not consent" to sex with the three officers, and the testimony of the only one of them called as a witness should not be believed.

Officers Leslie Nyznik, Sameer Kara and Josh Cabero are each charged with one count of sexual assault.

Nyznik was the only officer to testify in his own defence.

The officer told the court last week that the complainant came up with the idea of having group sex with the three officers and initiated it at a downtown hotel in January 2015.

But on Tuesday during his closing arguments, Perlmutter said Nyznik's testimony was a "script from a movie" and full of "unbelievable dialogue."

Perlmutter took issue with Nyznik's testimony that, during four instances of the complainant allegedly performing oral sex on him, he never touched her with his hands.

"That evidence just defies belief," Perlmutter told the court.

The veteran prosecutor said Nyznik was "desperate for sex" the night of the allegations and called the officer "an opportunist who should not be believed."

The court had previously heard Nyznik invited both an ex-girlfriend and an employee of the Brass Rail strip club back to the hotel room where the alleged assault occurred.

Nyznik also testified that the complainant was "flirting" with him the night of the alleged assault, telling the court she was "staring" and told him he had to be her "babysitter."

Perlmutter brushed off this testimony, calling it "completely irrelevant."

The Crown also opposed the defence's suggestion that the complainant was looking for sex on the night of the allegation.

Perlmutter argued said if that were true she would have brought condoms with her.

Following the alleged assault, the complainant testified that she took an emergency contraceptive and STD medication.

Complainant's 'faulty memory'

Prior to the Crown's statement, the defence wrapped up its closing arguments, which began Monday.

Lawyer Harry Black, representing Nyznik, told the court the complainant's evidence was full of "lies" and "not reliable."

"The truth is simply not being told," he said.

New video in police sexual assault trial

7 years ago

Duration 3:58

The sexual assault trial of three Toronto Police officers has seen its first images of the complainant and the accused in the critical moments directly before and after the alleged incident took place.

Black once again drew the court's attention to the complainant's behaviour following the alleged assault.

The trial previously heard that, the day after the allegations, the woman went for a pedicure, had dinner with friends (where she said she was uncomfortable and crying) and exchanged "flirtatious text messages" with another police officer.

Black argued this is "not consistent" with the woman's "claimed emotional state" that day.

The defence also dealt with the complainant's allegation that she may have been drugged.

Black told the court that administering a "stupefying" drug is not only a serious offence but something that requires planning.

Black said the officers could not have predicted the complainant would join them at the Brass Rail strip club (where she believes the drugging took place) let alone return to the hotel room with them.

Patrick Ducharme, the lawyer representing Cabero, criticized the complainant's "vague and dream-like" description of the alleged assault and suggested she "reconstructed" the memory after researching the effects of date rape drugs on the internet.

The court previously heard the complainant did research drugs on her phone while she waited to see a doctor the day following the allegations.

Ducharme told the court the complainant is an "unreliable" and "not credible" witness in the case, arguing her memory of the night in question is "faulty" and "selective."