Former Sudbury track coach David Case, 57, took the witness stand Wednesday, on day three of a trial where he is facing five charges, including sexual assault and assault.
Case's attorney, Nicholas Xynnis, questioned him about the testimony of a woman, who cannot be named under a publication ban, who says Case sexually assaulted her while she was an athlete under his training.
Case detailed his time as a standout track runner in Sudbury, which led to a scholarship offer from the University of South Dakota. Case began attending the university in January of 1981 and he returned home to Sudbury in the summer where he worked for the city doing a myriad of manual labour jobs.
He continued competing on the track in the summer while volunteering as a coach with Northland Athletic Club. Case returned to school for another year and was once again back in Sudbury during the summer of 1982, working with the city again and volunteering with Northland. This was the same summer that he first met the woman who claims that he sexually assaulted her.
"I first met her and her mother at the track at Laurentian where I was timing athletes and they approached me," said Case. "I explained some drills and exercises to them and she wasn't really getting them."
The woman explained during her testimony that she had aspirations to one day become an Olympic athlete, and Case didn't see her as having that level of potential at first glance.
"I told her mother that she should find another sport," Case said. "She came back two weeks later and she had the drills down pat and I agreed to coach her."
In 1983, things changed. Case said the University of South Dakota experienced funding cuts and his scholarship was "yanked" when he was starting his third year. Case, who was 21 at the time, returned home to Sudbury with his then girlfriend, but the two broke up roughly three months later.
Case had been coaching the woman during the summer of 1983, and she testified Monday that it was at a Legion track meet in London in 1984 that he sexually assaulted her.
"What was your relationship with (her) in 1983?" asked Xynnis.
"It was coach-athlete," replied Case.
"And in 1984, was there any change?"
"No"
When asked whether the interaction occurred where the woman stated Case brought her to his room Case undressed, lifted up her top and climbed on top of her and grinded on her until he ejaculated on her stomach, Case bluntly replied, "No."
The same response was given when asked if about the testimony from the woman that on the bus ride back from the meet, Case sat beside her and molested her, sliding his hand under her clothes and fondling her genitals.
"Did that ever happen?" asked Xynnis.
"No."
Case testified that at out-of-town track meets, he would not have a room to himself and was often in a dorm room with two to three other coaches. He also said the event organizer from the Legion, Ray McColeman, also attended the meets and would usually sit the hallway in the evening to make sure the kids weren't wandering around.
"We were in different sections of the dorm," said Case. "So there would be a section for the boys, a section for the girls and a section for the coaches."
Xynnis asked whether he had pushed her down a flight of steps when the two lived together at a Regent Street apartment after they had been married in secret in the fall of 1985. The woman testified Monday that the fall badly injured her hand when it went through a screen door, cutting it to the point that she required surgery.
"We used to dance and I went to twirl her and she fell," Case said.
The timeline of the relationship between Case and the woman has been a contentious point over the course of the trial, as both the defence and Crown questioned Case on when the relationship moved from coach/athlete to romantic interest, and marriage shortly after the woman turned 18.
"It was around 1985, she was staying with my family, there were some problems at home for her," said Case, who was adamant he and the woman's mother did not see eye-to-eye and he knew she was not fond of him.
"After the Legion meet (1984) where she had injured her ankle, I called a few days later to see how she was doing and her mother answered the phone and said 'it's none of your God damn business' and hung up on me. It was then that I think I realized she didn't really care for me," said Case.
Case described the relationship between the woman and her mother as strained. He said the two would fight often, which pushed her to leave home and move in the with the Case family.
She lived with the family for a few months, had her own room and that's when, as Case described it, the two became "chums." Case mentioned frequent calls from the woman's mother, and said he had tried to encourage her to go back to her mom, but she refused.
After a few months at the Case home, she applied for student welfare and lived in a women's shelter for a short time and then at a hotel, where Case would bring her food.
"She didn't like it there (at the hotel)" said Case. “She wanted to come back to my place. She just said her and her mother were having fights all the time.
"She came back to live with us a second time and she became sort of a member of the family, she started opening up more."
Things moved forward from there and the two got married. The secrecy of the marriage, according to Case, was all her idea.
"I got her a ring and she didn't want to wear it, she didn't want people to know, I didn't tell my parents," said Case.
A short time after they got married, the two moved out together into an apartment on Regent Street, the apartment where the woman says she was told by Case to strip naked and stand outside in the snow.
While Case denies it ever happened, he admitted he locked her out of their apartment on different occasions when the two were fighting.
"She'd go for a walk to cool down and I'd lock the door, but I'd let her back in when she came back," he said.
The fights between the two were largely centred around finances, and Case openly admitted Wednesday that 90 per cent of the financial trouble was on him. He had obtained a job at a local radio station and said he was "trying to keep up with the Joneses."
"There were guys at the station with nice suits and I was trying to keep up to that, I was making purchases that weren't necessary," said Case.
Money often caused arguments between the two, he said. Case cited an occasion where he had bought a new CD player and a debt collector showed up to the home -- which angered the woman and she threw the CD player at the wall.
Xynnis questioned whether the arguments ever escalated to physical violence, and Case spoke of an incident where the woman had put a knife to his throat and threatened to kill him.
"She kept saying 'I'm going to kill you', and I was trying to calm her down, eventually she got off," said Case.
When questioned about the marriage as a whole, Case broke down into tears, saying, "It was immature, I was irresponsible."
When it came time for Assistant Crown attorney Stephanie Baker to cross examine Case, her focus landed on Case's need to protect his reputation as the reason behind keeping his relationship with the woman a secret.
"You didn't want people to know because you though it might damage your reputation," said Baker.
"I disagree," said Case.
"Your parents wouldn't approve?"
"I disagree."
"Her parents wouldn't approve?"
"I'd imagine so."
Baker also leaned heavily on the fact that while the two were forming a relationship, Case was always in a position of authority as her track coach.
"The first time you had sex, you were still her coach at the time?" asked Baker.
"Yes," Case replied.
"This marriage was in secrecy the entire time?"
"She was adamant that I not tell anyone."
Again, Case spoke with regret when the matter of his marriage was brought up.
"I was very young at the time and thought 'who cares?'” he said. “That was a mistake -- it was a big mistake."
Baker turned her attention to Case's desire to control the woman, citing multiple occasions where he called the police on her. One occasion was when the woman was going to a party and wanted to take Case's mother's car.
The woman was not a drinker, and Case said he didn't want her to get in the car with anyone that had been drinking. Case later called the police on the woman and reported the car stolen.
"You wanted her to be embarrassed," said Baker.
"I disagree," said Case.
On another occasion, Case called the police over some track clothing that the woman had in her possession that he needed as he was headed to a meet.
"You wanted to control what she was doing?" said Baker.
"I disagree, it had nothing to do with control, I didn't want to deal with her mother," said Case, who admitted that looking back on it, his decision to call the police was "petty and immature."
On Tuesday, the woman's mother testified that while she and her daughter were in Thunder Bay for the funeral of the woman's grandmother, the Thunder Bay Police had called her early in the morning, asking where her daughter was.
When asked if he had called the Thunder Bay Police while the woman was there for the funeral, Case said that he couldn't recall if he did or not.
Baker wrapped up her questioning at the end of the muddy timeline, asking about the events that led to the woman ultimately leaving.
Case explained that he was away at a conference in Toronto and the woman had called him and seemed very upset and stressed.
"I took a car back to Sudbury to see her and she kept asking if she could come back to Toronto with me," said Case, who returned south without the woman, but returned the following day to an empty apartment.
"I came home and all the lights at the apartment were out. I went in and all of her stuff was gone. It was very confusing, why would she have left?"
Case said he didn't see the woman again until the preliminary hearing.
The Crown and defence are expected to enter their submissions on Jan. 16 at 1 p.m.
