A Calgary jury is now deciding the case of a Sundre woman accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy she had been asked to chaperone after a New Year’s Eve party.
Alexa Suitor, 35, is charged with sexual assault and sexual interference. The charges relate to the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 2024, at a rural home northwest of Sundre.
The 12 jurors began deliberating Friday afternoon, after closing arguments from both sides and final instructions on the law from Justice Donald Mah of the Court of King’s Bench.
Suitor has pleaded not guilty and told the jury it never happened. The charges have not been proven in court.
The message at the centre of the case
Jurors heard that adults and teenagers were drinking at the party. After it ended, Suitor and several teens stayed the night, some on cots in the living room and some in bedrooms. Suitor had been asked to supervise the teens.
The boy, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, testified that he fell asleep on a cot and woke up to Suitor touching him sexually, and that it led to intercourse.
He told the court that the next day, Suitor sent him a Snapchat message: “We took it too far last night.”
A friend testified that he saw the message.
Suitor denied sending it. Under cross-examination, she agreed that she had the boy as a Snapchat contact and had messaged with him before.
What the teen witness said
Another teenager told jurors that she saw Suitor and the boy together on a cot when she went to the kitchen for a glass of water, and that she believed she saw them having sex.
Under cross-examination, she agreed she couldn’t see directly under the blankets covering them.
Defence lawyer Patrick Fagan also put it to the boy that he was lying. The boy denied it.
“She must be mistaken”
Suitor testified in her own defence and denied any sexual contact with the boy.
Crown prosecutor James Molloy asked her about the teen who said she saw them together.
“Your position on that is that she must be mistaken?” he asked.
“Yes,” Suitor said.
“If not, you’d have to be bluffing?”
“OK,” she replied.
Suitor also told the court she drank so much that night that she threw up before going to sleep on a cot. Molloy asked whether she drank so much she didn’t remember the evening.
“I drank over an extended period of time, and I do remember,” she said.
How the case began
Sundre RCMP began investigating on March 27, 2024. Suitor, then 32, was arrested on April 5.
At the time, police said they had identified four male teenagers as alleged victims. They announced charges of sexual assault, sexual interference and four counts of making sexually explicit material available to a child.
The jury trial deals only with the sexual assault and sexual interference charges involving one boy. It began in Calgary on Oct. 26, after being rescheduled at least once.
Her role with Sundre Minor Hockey
Suitor was a volunteer board member with the Sundre Minor Hockey Association.
After she was charged, the association said it had removed her from the board while the case is before the courts. It said the allegations weren’t connected to hockey, and that she wasn’t a coach or manager and had no role in delivering hockey programs.
What “sexual interference” means
Sexual interference is an offence under Section 151 of the Criminal Code. It covers touching for a sexual purpose when the alleged victim is under 16.
The age of consent in Canada is 16. For anyone younger, consent isn’t a defence unless the two people are close in age. Those exceptions don’t apply to an adult in her 30s and a 15-year-old.
That means the Crown doesn’t have to prove the boy objected. It has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the sexual contact happened.
On a conviction by indictment, sexual interference carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.
What happens next
The jury’s verdict has to be unanimous. If the jurors can’t all agree, the judge can declare a mistrial.
Court time had been set aside until Nov. 6.
Suitor is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. We’ll update this story when the jury reaches a verdict.
Sources
Criminal Code of Canada, section 150.1 (when consent is no defence)
Sundre RCMP charges, April 2024, as reported by Mountain View Today
Court reporting
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