SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Former cabinet minister Henry Zoe's sexual assault trial began Wednesday but was adjourned until November after lawyers disagreed over the admissibility of Zoe's police statement and his credibility as a witness.

Henry Zoe: In court facing a Feb. 20, 2009 sexual assault charge involving a teenager. He has pleaded not guilty.

Zoe, former MLA for North Slave (now Monfwi) was in NWT Territorial Court Wednesday to face a Feb. 20, 2009 sexual assault charge involving an 18-year-old woman. He has pleaded not guilty.

Zoe, 50, was the first defence witness to take the stand after Crown prosecutor Danielle Vaillancourt closed her case. She called only the complainant as a witness.

Zoe watched without expression as he listened to the complainant, now 19, on the stand.

Speaking quietly, and haltingly, the woman said Zoe touched her breast beneath her shirt and bra while the two were sitting on the couch in his apartment Feb. 20.

"He asked if it was OK. I said, 'No, stop,'" she said. "I kept saying it over and over."

She added she told him to stop several times before he did, telling her he was massaging her because she was upset. She also said he tried to kiss her. When she got up to go, Zoe gave her a hug and grabbed her bum, she said.

"He said if I ever needed private time to give him a call," she said.

The woman also testified she called Zoe from her cell phone at least twice immediately after she left.

"(I) asked why did you do this to me? He said, 'I don't know what you're talking about,'" she told the court.

She said she then went to tell Zoe's common-law wife what had happened, who, according to the woman, believed her. The two women confronted Zoe later that night, who was on the couch watching TV and drinking a beer at the time, she said.

Both the complainant and Zoe described the confrontation, each saying Zoe maintained he didn't do anything. The woman stayed in the house for a time afterwards, they both agree, talking and helping Zoe's wife cut vegetables.

She reported the incident to police six days later.

"I was scared ... if Henry found out I reported it to the police I thought he'd do something else to me," she said.

During cross-examination, defence lawyer Caroline Wawzonek suggested the woman was not telling the truth, telling her, "I'm going to suggest to you Henry did not touch your breast" and "I'm going to suggest he did not ask you to call him for private time."

The girl answered each one with, "He did," breaking into sobs at the end.

Only partially into his testimony before the adjournment was called, Zoe emphatically denied the incident happened at all.

During the prosecution's cross-examination of Zoe, Vaillancourt said she had some "concerns with regards to the credibility of his (Zoe's) evidence today."

She added being able to question Zoe with reference to his videotaped police statement would enable her to get to the heart of the issue, but she didn't elaborate.

Wawzonek protested the move, saying Zoe chose to stand witness only after Vaillancourt said she wouldn't be using his statement to police at all – either as part of her case or as part of the cross-examination.

Judge Christine Gagnon chose to adjourn the matter to allow both lawyers to build cases for their arguments.

She'll hear them Nov. 9 and then decide whether to open the trial to a voir dire – a sort of trial within a trial during which Zoe's video statement will be played. Gagnon will then decide whether it can be admitted into court.