Court upholds musician Jacob Hoggard's sex assault conviction

Jacob Hoggard began serving his sentence Friday after Ontario's top court dismissed the Hedley frontman's appeal of his sexual assault conviction.

The musician's legal team said he surrendered into custody immediately before the ruling was delivered Friday, as is typical in criminal appeals.

The Appeal Court unanimously upheld Hoggard's conviction despite finding his trial should not have heard the evidence of a psychologist who testified on the neurobiology of trauma.

Hoggard was found guilty in June 2022 of sexual assault causing bodily harm against an Ottawa woman and later sentenced to five years behind bars. He was released on bail hours later, pending his appeal.

The woman told CBC News via text message on Friday that she was thankful the appeal was dismissed and is "relieved that after almost nine years this is FINALLY over."

She added: "His first night in jail after two years of appealing. I won."

Expert's testimony was questioned in appeal

Court documents show his lawyers appealed the conviction on four grounds, including that the trial judge erred by admitting the evidence of clinical psychologist Lori Haskell on the neurobiology of trauma.

They also argued the trial judge wrongly permitted prosecutors to argue that the expert's evidence supported the credibility of the woman Hoggard was found to have sexually assaulted.

The Crown argued in court documents that the psychologist's evidence was properly admitted at trial, and that the trial judge limited Haskell's evidence on the neurobiology of trauma to the "established evidence."

Prosecutors also argued that evidence was not challenged by the defence during cross-examination, and that the trial judge gave jurors mid-trial and final instructions on it.

The Appeal Court found that the trial judge erred in admitting the expert's evidence in part because it risked being misused by the jury to reason backward that the complainants had experienced a sexual assault.

Though jurors were instructed they could not use Haskell's evidence to diagnose the complainants or conclude that their behaviour was consistent with having been sexually assaulted, some questions raised during deliberations suggested jurors were "doing precisely what they were cautioned not to do," the ruling said.

The trial judge reminded jurors the expert's testimony played "a very small role" in the case and could not be used to explain the particular evidence in the case, the appeal decision said.

"In my view, the expert evidence was not necessary in this case. A jury instruction alone would provide the necessary guidance and, moreover, would have avoided the obvious risks that later materialized in the jury questions," Justice Mary Lou Benotto wrote on behalf of the appeal panel.

The judge's response "corrected the path the jury appeared to be on," however, Benotto wrote.

Therefore, the court found "there was no substantial wrong or miscarriage of justice," it said in dismissing the appeal.

The three-judge panel found the trial judge did not make any errors regarding the other grounds raised by Hoggard's legal team in challenging the conviction.

Hoggard's lawyers considering next steps

Hoggard's lawyers said they were disappointed with the Appeal Court ruling.

"While we maintain that Mr. Hoggard's trial was unfair, we respect the court's decision," Megan Savard, Gerald Chan, Arash Ghiassi and Spencer Bass said in a joint statement.

"We are carefully reviewing the judgment to consider our next steps."

At trial, Hoggard was found guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm against the woman and acquitted of the same charge against a teenage fan. He was also found not guilty of sexual interference, a charge that refers to the sexual touching of someone under 16, in relation to the teen.

Prosecutors alleged Hoggard groped the teen after a Hedley show in Toronto in April 2016, then violently raped her in a Toronto-area hotel room later that year after she turned 16. They alleged Hoggard then violently raped the Ottawa woman in a downtown Toronto hotel in November 2016.

The identity of the complainants is protected under a standard publication ban.

The musician, who was charged in 2018, pleaded not guilty to all charges. In his testimony, he acknowledged having sex with both complainants but denied sexually assaulting them, portraying the encounters as consensual one-night stands.

As a result, the case turned on the issue of consent.

Jurors deliberated for six days and twice declared themselves deadlocked on some aspects before pushing forward. In that time, they asked for the court's guidance on several legal issues, many of them related to consent.

Hedley, which rose to fame after Hoggard came in third on the reality show Canadian Idol in 2004, went on an indefinite hiatus when allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced. Its last show was in Kelowna, B.C., on March 24, 2018.