Allooloo not guilty, jury finds
Former RCMP officer acquitted of sexual assault, interference charges
Meagan Leonard
Northern News Services
Friday, February 26, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Former RCMP officer Colin Allooloo is not guilty of sexually assaulting a six-year-old girl who was in his care five years ago in Inuvik, a jury has decided.
Allooloo's expression was unreadable as defence lawyer Jay Bran patted him on the back following a two-hour deliberation by the seven-woman and five-man jury in NWT Supreme Court in Yellowknife, which saw him acquitted of two charges: sexual assault and touching a minor for sexual purposes.
Allooloo had firmly maintained his innocence on the witness stand earlier in the week, calmly responding "no" when Bran asked if he had sexually assaulted the girl while babysitting her during an incident occurring sometime between September 2010 and May 2011.
When asked how he reacted when he first heard the allegations, Allooloo paused momentarily then said he was shocked.
"I was in shock, sad, dumbfounded - I was just in shock," he said.
"It's hard to explain and hard to take."
The now 11-year-old complainant testified via closed-circuit television Tuesday afternoon, alleging while in Allooloo's care, he came into her bedroom, pulled down her pajamas and assaulted her.
She used diagrams to demonstrate how and where he had touched her.
In his closing statement Thursday morning Bran said because of her age and the time elapsed since the alleged incident, the validity of her memory was questionable. He pointed out she could not remember many important details and had learned the term "sexual assault" from television.
When asked in court what the person who assaulted her had been wearing, how his body was positioned and whether she had been asleep when it happened, the girl responded, "I don't know."
The girl testified her mouth had been covered during the act, so she could not speak but there had not been anyone else in the house at the time. Bran said this was "curious."
She said she could not remember what she had done that day or the next day, what grade she was in or what month it was.
She repeatedly said, "I don't remember.
"I don't remember a lot of stuff."
When asked why she waited so long to tell anyone what happened, she responded "I don't know."
Bran suggested she had a motive for the allegations, that she had not liked Allooloo's strict rules and wanted to get him in trouble.
The girl's grandmother also testified and said allegations were made to her during a road-trip the two of them took sometime in early August 2014 and she soon after conveyed her concerns to her daughter.
Allooloo was apprehended later that fall as he was leaving his home in Yellowknife to go to the gym.
Crown prosecutor Wendy Miller called Allooloo's character into question in light of his 2009 conviction for assaulting a youth in a Fort Simpson cell with pepper spray.
As a result of that incident, he was placed on house arrest for 30 days and received a 10-year firearms prohibition leading him to resign from the force in October 2010 - around the same time of the current allegations.
In her closing statement, Miller said the fact Allooloo had not previously shown inclination toward sexual deviancy or pedophilia did not mean he was necessarily innocent.
"Anyone in this room could be a sexual offender," she had said, gesturing to the public.
Allooloo also worked as a stand-in for Arctic Air actor Adam Beach while the show was filming in Yellowknife.
