Despite being prepared to sentence former track coach David Case today, Superior Court Justice Alex Kurke will hand down his sentence on Jan. 4, 2021.
That’s because Case’s defence lawyer, Nicholas Xynnis, said following sentencing submissions this morning that he had asked for a reserved decision through email, and that Kurke had agreed. While Kurke said he could not remember agreeing to a reserved decision, he adjourned the sentencing to Jan. 4.
Case, 58, was convicted in March of one count of sexual assault, one count of assault causing bodily harm and one count of assault against a girl he coached in the 1980s and early 1990s. She was 15 when she first met Case, and she secretly married him in 1985 when she turned 18.
Xynnis is seeking three years of probation. If Kurke decides on incarceration, Xynnis submitted a range of between six and 12 months.
“My client has lived until the age of 58 without a criminal record and has led a fairly productive and social life, which belies any concern that he’d reoffend,” Xynnis said.
However, Kurke said he is aware Case is also to be sentenced in January after he was found guilty of sexual assault by aiding and abetting. The charges in that case came after these charges, meaning Case had no criminal record prior to this trial.
The Crown is seeking a five-year prison sentence, that Case be listed on the Sex Offender Information Registry for 20 years, as well as a 10-year weapons ban and to not have contact with the victim.
The victim delivered an impact statement via Zoom.
In it, she said Case terrified her, and hurt her physically and emotionally. She told the court she learned a valuable lesson though her time spent with Case: how not to treat people and how to be a caring, kind and empathetic person. She said she will never allow a man to manipulate her again.
“He told me I was nothing without him, but I’ve amounted to something,” the victim said tearfully.
She now has a degree and a good government job, she has owned multiple homes and vehicles and leads an “amazing life.”
“I’ve become a great mom, and I’ve done all this without you,” she said to Case.
She said Case is a man who is all about his image, but “you have an image now, and it’s not a good one. You may have taken my youth from me, but you will never take my life, and I am so thankful I survived you.”
Case declined the opportunity to address the court.
During the trial in January, the court heard the victim was sexually assaulted by Case on a bus when she was just 15, sexually attacked in a dorm room and a local hotel room when she was 16 and physically attacked after they were secretly married shortly after she turned 18.
Those incidents include one occasion when Case forced her to strip naked, and then locked her outside in -15 C winter weather. Then Case turned the outside lights on and off, as she sat shivering, her feet turning blue from the cold, banging on the door for him to let her back in.
He did the same thing when they lived in an apartment building, forcing her into the hallway naked for an hour as she hid behind a door to prevent anyone from seeing her.
In another incident, the woman said Case pushed her down the stairs, and she slammed into a screen door, deeply cutting her hand, which began to bleed heavily. After refusing to take her to the hospital, she began walking. He followed, but she didn't want to get in the car with him. But he continually beeped the horn as she struggled to walk, eventually getting in the car.
He dropped her off at hospital – but far from the emergency door, so he wouldn't be seen. She required a blood transfusion and surgery to repair tendons.
By the time she fled the relationship in January 1993, she was estranged from her family, had no friends, her Olympic aspirations were gone and she had trouble keeping jobs because of Case's controlling and jealous behaviour.
Assistant Crown attorney Stephanie Baker emphasized several aggravating factors Kurke should consider in handing down his sentencing.**
First is the coach-athlete relationship between Case and the victim. Case was in a position of trust when he sexually assaulted the victim when she was 16. By committing that crime, Case deprived her of a normal childhood.
This relationship led to her being isolated from her family, she left home and became dependent on Case.
“Instead of enjoying normal high school experiences with her friends and family, she became completely dependent on him. This involved an abuse of the position of trust.”
The second feature is the abuse happened at a vulnerable time in her life, said Baker, and the third aggravating feature is that the relationship turned violent and resulted not only in the assault, but a controlling relationship, and it all occurred in the context of the athlete-coach relationship.”
-With files from Matt Durnan
**Originally, the word 'mitigating' was used in place of the correct word 'aggravating'. This has been corrected.
