Two women charged after a controversial police raid of a Toronto lesbian-bathhouse event last year asked a judge to stay the charges yesterday, saying police had violated their constitutional rights.
As the trial for Jill Hornick and Rachel Aitcheson got underway in a Toronto courtroom, their lawyer, Frank Addario, brought an application for a judicial stay.
If Mr. Justice Peter Hryn of the Ontario Court accepts the defence argument that the raid constituted a police abuse of process, a stay would mean the charges would not proceed to trial and be tantamount to an acquittal.
Mr. Addario said a stay is the only "appropriate and just remedy" because to do otherwise would make it appear as if the court sanctions police abuse of authority.
The women were the only ones charged because the event's special liquor licence was in their names.
Police laid the charges under the Liquor Licence Act rather than under the Criminal Code, which means the women face fines instead of jail time if convicted. They are charged with three counts each of permitting disorderly conduct and one count each of failing to provide security, serving liquor outside licensed hours and permitting alcohol to be removed from the premises.
The city's lesbian community expressed outrage when five male Toronto police officers entered the all-female event at Club Toronto, a gay men's bathhouse on Mutual Street in downtown Toronto, on Sept. 15, 2000. The officers said they were there to check for liquor-licence violations.
About 300 women attended the all-night lesbian bathhouse, the fourth held since 1998. The majority of the women were either naked, topless or wearing revealing clothing, and some were having sex, the court heard yesterday.
Five women who were at the party told court yesterday they felt intimidated by the male officers. They said they would not have minded female officers entering the premises.
The women described the party as a happy, relaxed atmosphere where females could explore their sexuality in a safe environment. However, that changed when the police arrived shortly before 1 a.m., they told the court.
In arguing for a stay, Mr. Addario said the police force breached sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by sending in male officers when they knew some women would be nude or partly nude.
Pussy Palace Cops Say Raid Justified
www.365gay.com
by Jan Prout
365Gay.com Newscenter in
Toronto
(October 24, Toronto) The Toronto police officer in charge of a raid on a "Women's Only" bath house event said their raid was justified.
Detective David Wilson told the court that the raid was well organized. Testifying for the crown, Wilson said he chose officers with what he called a special knowledge of the gay community for the raid, last September 14. But, under cross examination by defence lawyer Frank Addario, Wilson admitted the the only specific knowledge the officer had was in participating in raids on two other clubs, Remington's and the Bijou.
Five male Toronto police officers entered the Club Toronto baths saying they were acting on a complaint that illegal activity was going on.
For more than an hour the male officers went through the five storey building, despite the fact the women were in various states of undress. Many of them were naked.
Two undercover female officers had been in the building prior to the raid but left when the male uniformed officers arrived.
Two of the organizers of the event were later charged with liquor infractions. Addario has moved to have the case dismissed alleging the officers violated the women's Constitutional right of the expectation of privacy.
One of the undercover officers repeated a comment made by prosecutors when the trial opened in Provincial Court yesterday, that men were in the building at the time, and the presence of male officers should not have angered the women.
The female officer told the crown today, "there were, what do you call them...transies....you know, men who think they are women."
The crown asked how she knew they were transsexuals. "They were bigger than the women, masculine, and they had, uh, a bulge in their crotch," she said.
The testimony angered transgendered spectators in the court, part of a group of women supporting the two defendants.
During his testimony, Detective Wilson said he depended on information provided by the two female undercover officers. Wilson testified that if nothing illegal had been found by the undercover officers the raid would have been called off.
Addario challenged Wilson's testimony, reading part of a transcript from the discovery of a civil suit, in which Wilson said the raid would have gone ahead regardless of what the undercover officers found.
Wilson has launched a civil suit against Toronto Councillor Kyle Rae, the only out member of city council for comments Rae made following the raid.
The trail has been adjourned until November 29 for closing arguments.