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Not guilty

Metis leader acquitted of sex assault charge

Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Feb 26/01) - It was a relieved Gordon Villebrun who emerged from court last Tuesday.

The 43-year-old president of the Fort Smith Metis local had just been acquitted of sexual assault charges.

He was charged with break, enter and sexual assault after an incident that was alleged to have occurred on March 14, 1998.

Villebrun was elated following the decision.

"This has been hanging over my shoulders for a couple of years here and it's been a lot of weight to carry around," he said.

"I can get back to my normal life and carry on as Metis president and do my business."

Villebrun's lawyer, Bob Gorin said the right decision was reached.

"I felt that the Crown did the best job it could, with the evidence it had, but obviously it wasn't enough," he said.

The trial began with jury selection Monday morning, Feb. 19, and ended Tuesday afternoon when the jury of six men and six women came back with the not-guilty verdict.

They deliberated for less than four hours.

The Supreme Court justice and jury heard two very different stories about what happened on the night in question.

The complainant testified that she met Villebrun at a party, and went home alone. She said she awoke to find Villebrun in her bed, with his hand between her legs.

"He was trying to kiss me and told me I had, 'kissable lips,'" she said.

She said she told him to leave but didn't report the crime to police until October 1999 because she said she feared repercussions from her employer.

"All I thought was I'd lose my job," she told the court.

Villebrun testified that he met the complainant at a drinking establishment and danced with the complainant at her request.

When the bar closed, Villebrun said the complainant invited him to a party at her place, but Villebrun said he went to a party at a residence on the south end of town.

He said he later caught a ride to her house and found the lights on and the door "wide open."

He said he knocked on the door three times before she called out from her bedroom.

Villebrun said he was invited into the trailer and spoke to the complainant in her bedroom. He said she threw the covers off and patted the bed, asking him to come sit down.

Villebrun said he slept on the couch and left in a taxi around 10:30 the next day.