Update: Evidence ends in second trial for sexual assault

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The Crown closed its case against Keith Chase on Wednesday, May 29, and the defence decided not to call any witnesses.

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The case has been adjourned to June 10 at the Kamloops Law Courts to fix a date for closing submissions.

It’s the second trial for Chase, 57, who is accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl in 2004 while he was her hockey coach.

The second trial came after his conviction in the first trial was overturned by the B.C. Court of Appeal due to errors made by the judge.

Second trial for sexual assault underway
May 27, 2024

The second trial of a Coldstream man accused of sexual assault from an incident 20 years ago, started Monday in B.C. Supreme Court in Vernon.

Keith Gordon Grant Chase, who is also a Vernon business owner, was found guilty of the charge in 2022 involving an underaged girl when he was her hockey coach. Chase was sentenced to 23 months in prison.

Chase, who was born in 1967, had the conviction overturned and was ordered a new trial by the B.C. Court of Appeal in 2023 due to errors made by the trial judge.

The new trial began Monday with Chase answering “not guilty” when asked by Justice Ann Donegan how he pled to the charge.

RCMP Const. Shaun Miranda was the first witness to testify for the Crown, saying he was assigned to the complaint on Feb. 7, 2020 and interviewed the complainant the next day.

The complainant then took the witness stand, and her testimony was expected to continue Monday and Tuesday.

She told the court about playing ringette and hockey while she was growing up in Vernon and joining the hockey team with Chase as the coach.

“I loved hockey. I ate, slept and drank hockey,” she told the justice before a break for lunch.

There is a ban on publication of the complainant’s name.

Crown counsel Matthew Blow said the complainant will present evidence that she was sexually assaulted by the accused “touching her in a sexual manner without her consent.”

The complainant went to her parents to tell them what happened around 2008 and then to police in 2020.

“Circumstances in her life led her to revisit these events in a rather profound way and that led to her to a meeting with the accused at his place of work,” the Crown lawyer stated.

The complainant made a recording of that meeting, and a limited amount of that was allowed as evidence during the first trial.

“I expect credibility and reliability to be the central issues you will need to decide,” Blow told the justice.

The complainant’s father is the only other Crown witness expected to testify.

Chase is represented in court by Vancouver defence counsel Richard Fowler.