Man acquitted in sexual assault case

A judge has acquitted a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman near Rapid City in 2023.

“While I may not believe the accused in his entirety, I am left in reasonable doubt by his testimony,” Justice Sandra Zinchuk said in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench on Wednesday.

“The Crown has not met its onus, and therefore, I must find the accused not guilty,” Zinchuk said.

Kyle Mitchell Robinson, 35, stood trial for sexual assault in March.

While delivering her decision, Zinchuk outlined the allegations and key points from the single-day trial.

The complainant testified she and Robinson had hung out a few times in the spring of 2023, and she was under the impression they would continue to see each other. After texting him several times and receiving no response, she said she concluded he wasn’t interested.

She had also messaged him several times about a pair of bikini bottoms she left at Robinson’s father’s house.

In August 2023, the complainant saw the man at a bar in Rapid City and suggested they go to his father’s house to look for her bathing suit bottoms, which Robinson agreed to.

At the house, the two kissed, and Robinson asked if she wanted to “go upstairs,” implying they could have sex, the complainant testified.

She said she refused and explained she hadn’t heard from him in a long time. She alleged he tried to convince her it would be different this time.

The woman said the accused offered to perform oral sex on her, and after a bit of back and forth, she agreed, and they went to an upstairs bedroom.

After about a minute of the man performing oral sex on the complainant, she said she didn’t want to do it anymore, she testified. She pushed his head away and told him to stop, she alleged.

“The complainant testified that the accused somehow got his shorts off, started kissing her and tried to push his erect penis inside her. She said no and tried to push him off,” Zinchuk said. “She testified that she yelled and screamed ‘no’ and ‘stop’ several times.”

The complainant said he penetrated her at least two times and that he was holding her arms or fighting with her before she was able to get him off her and leave.

The woman said she called the police the next day and gave a statement.

Zinchuk emphasized that an accused cannot be convicted of an offence unless it is proved against them beyond a reasonable doubt.

Referring to Robinson’s testimony during the trial, she said there were many aspects that accorded with the complainant’s, including that he didn’t respond to several of her texts, that she approached him at the bar in August 2023 and that they went to his father’s house to look for her bikini bottoms, Zinchuk said.

Robinson said they sat in his father’s hot tub for about 10 to 15 minutes, where no sexual contact occurred, before moving to the living room.

He testified that they kissed, and at one point, a “switch flipped off” in the complainant’s head, and she got upset and left the house.

“He denies pressuring the complainant to have sex, going upstairs to the bedroom, performing oral sex on her or attempting to penetrate her vagina,” Zinchuk said.

Robinson also testified that he had a girlfriend at the time, whose name he brought up at least twice with the complainant that evening.

A few days after the date of the allegations, the complainant saw the accused and his girlfriend at a bar, and it was soon after that he received a call from his father that police wanted to speak to him, he testified.

Robinson texted the accused a few days after that to “apologize for being a wiener” and make sure the complainant was doing all right.

“He clearly also wanted to know if the complainant had called the cops on him,” Zinchuk said.

When the complainant confirmed she had spoken to police, Robinson called her insane and asked why. She explained that it was because she said “stop” multiple times. He proceeded to call her “crazy,” and the woman reiterated that she had said “no.”

The Crown argued Robinson tried to distance himself from any sexual attraction to the complainant, specifically referring to a point in his testimony when he said he wasn’t aroused nor sexually attracted to the complainant while kissing her.

The Crown also argued Robinson’s text messages were consistent with the complainant’s testimony and that his responses to when the complainant told him why she went to police didn’t make sense.

“I disagree,” Zinchuk said. “The message exchange is equally, if not more, consistent with the accused’s testimony.”

He had testified he hurt the complainant’s feelings by only wanting to be friends and that he felt bad about kissing her because he felt like he was using her.

“The apology contained in the messages is consistent with his evidence,” Zinchuk said. “The accused’s reaction to the complainant’s confirmation that she spoke to police and that she had told him to stop is consistent with being shocked and in disbelief.”

She said the words he used were consistent with denial.

“His testimony about what occurred at the house is inherently plausible in light of all the evidence.”

» sanderson@brandonsun.com