Prince George gangster Joey Lamont Arrance has been found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman at the Renegades Clubhouse two summers ago.
In giving oral reasons for judgment on Tuesday, provincial court judge Michael Gray found Arrance's testimony contrived and not believable and partially rejected the evidence of Sabrina Powar, one of four witnesses who took the stand.
But Gray also found there were enough problems with the testimony of the woman, now 20 years old, who cannot be identified under a court-ordered publication ban, to compromise his ability to find Arrance guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
"Although I rejected your testimony and have in part rejected Ms. Powar's testimony, when I look at all of the evidence, the Crown has not met the threshold for reasonable doubt," Gray told Arrance.
"In other words, I find that although the complainant has been a credible witness in the trial, she's not a reliable witness because she has poor recall, as I termed it, and because of the large amount of
alcohol consumption."
A friend of the complainant's family who had sat through the three-day trial in October said the verdict was not surprising given the evidence presented to Gray and the fact the Crown must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the crime was committed.
"If it was based on probability, it would have been different," the friend said, and added the incident has caused great emotional strain for the woman and her family.
The Crown prosecutor was Lara Vizsolyi and the defence lawyer was Patricia Connor, based in Vancouver.
When he took the stand, Arrance testified he did have sex with the woman while the two were alone on the house's back deck during the early morning hours of July 22, 2010 but it was consensual and they stopped when she wanted to.
Arrance also testified he used a condom.
Gray noted Arrance claimed no recollection of certain details of the encounter and found his testimony on other aspects
contradictory.
"In terms of your evidence, as I view it, the details you did provide and the details you didn't provide strike me as being contrived," Gray told Arrance. "You have set to tell a story that has some details in it and other details that were, conveniently, not recalled or you did not wish to present them."
During the trial, the court heard the woman had been out drinking with two other female friends and eventually found herself at the clubhouse, where she had never been before. A physician testified an examination of the woman uncovered a large abrasion that would have "required any woman to stop contact in terms of sexual intercourse," Gray said.
At the time of the incident, Arrance was a junior member or "striker" with the Renegades Motorcycle Club, an affiliate of the Hells Angels and Game Tight Soldiers organized crime groups.
Sheriffs upped security for those entering the courtroom using a metal detector to search for weapons and asking people to empty their pockets and jackets.
Arrance, who appeared relieved at the verdict, remains in custody on firearms-related charges from a Sept. 2010 police raid on a home at 4337 Foster Road that RCMP said uncovered a 10 mm. Glock handgun, an inert pineapple style grenade and soft body armour.
Arrance's girlfriend, Kirsten Sabrina Campbell Fredin, also faces charges from the incident.
An arraignment hearing is scheduled today for Arrance while Fredin's case is to go to judicial case management to fix a date, also today.
In late Nov. 2010, the home was gutted by a fire from which Fredin's mother later died from extensive burns. The blaze was set 22 hours after The Twisted Soul Tattoo Parlor, owned by Arrance, was also gutted by fire.
