WOOFS AND WAGS | Photo coverage of the Vernon and District Kennel Club sanctioned match [A10]
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STAR SHOWDOWN
JOSÉ LAROCHELLE/ MORNING STAR
Karly Sansom pulls a front flip during the seventh annual Showdown, Hoedown, Throwdown event as part of the Canadian Open Freestyle Ski Tour Saturday at Silver Star Mountain Resort. See Sports, page A27, for more.
Judge to render verdict in Ashton trial ROGER KNOX Morning Star Staff
Deborah Louise Ashton finds out her fate this morning. Ashton, 47, the former Vernon teacher and vice-principal facing five counts in connection with an alleged sexual relationship with a former student between 2002 and 2004, will hear Judge Alison Beames’ decision at 10 a.m. in Vernon Supreme Court. A jury in Ashton’s first trial could not reach a verdict on three counts over two days of deliberation in February 2011. Beames told court Tuesday, after proceedings wrapped up at 3 p.m., she would take the evening to reach a verdict and deliver it this morning. The final day of the 11-day trial, held over
the course of three-plus weeks, saw lawyers “This was a young boy who probably had for both sides give their closing submis- a crush on her, as did some of the other boys sions. we’ve heard testimony from,” said La Liberte. Ashton is accused of having a “This was a woman who gave these sexual relationship with one of boys everything. her former Grade 7 students at the “She gave every kid on the basVernon elementary school she was ketball team gifts. Does this corteaching and was vice-principal at, roborate sexual activity took place? and that the relationship carried No, no, no.” on after the student left to attend a Saying the onus is always on Vernon secondary school. the Crown to prove guilt beyond a With more than a dozen supreasonable doubt, La Liberte said porters for both sides in the gal- Deborah Ashton to Beames during his 80-minute lery, people who have sat through closing argument the alleged vicmost of the second trial since day tim’s evidence is “so fraught with one, Ashton’s lawyer, Terry La Liberte, start- inconsistencies that one can’t rely upon it. ed the final day Tuesday by saying the alleged “My theory is he got caught up in a lie to victim was “stuck in a lie.” his buddies about having sex with his teach-
er and could not resolve it,” said La Liberte. “He painted himself into a corner.” La Liberte told Beames the alleged victim can’t remember details about having sex in Ashton’s suburban, can’t remember seeing a prominent tattoo around Ashton’s navel and also took aim at testimony given by the alleged victim’s brother and three friends, and Ashton’s ex-husband. While acknowledging that the alleged victim did have problems with memory recall of certain events, Crown counsel Neil Flanagan said the focus of the trial is the “sexual things that began to occur between Ashton and the alleged victim in the spring of the student’s Grade 7 year.”
See TESTIMONY on page A5
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2012 Business Review & Forecast