A judge has set aside an NWT man’s admission of sexual interference over concerns that he “faced subtle pressure to plead guilty against his true intent.”
The man, who was 21 years old at the time of the alleged offences against a 14-year-old in 2019, will now face a trial.
In NWT Supreme Court, Justice Michael McKelvey said “it would be dangerous” to allow the guilty plea to stand.
“It is reasonable to believe that there were factors which impaired his ability to make a conscious volitional choice,” McKelvey stated in a written ruling issued on Wednesday.
The man, from Behchokǫ̀, was charged with sexual interference and sexual assault. Cabin Radio is not naming him to be certain of not identifying the alleged victim.
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He admitted sexually assaulting the 14-year-old in a 2019 interview with police, but only after denying having done so multiple times while requesting a lawyer.
More than four years after the initial police interviews, in January 2024, the man pleaded guilty to sexual interference in court. But by August 2024, he had changed his position.
In an affidavit, the accused stated: “I’m not guilty of these charges, or of any offences sexual or otherwise relating to [the complainant]. I made a terrible mistake by pleading guilty. I did so because I felt pressure from my lawyer and because I was afraid that [the complainant] would harm herself if I did not plead guilty.”
Of his confession to police, he stated: “I just wanted the interview to be over, so I thought if I told the officer what he obviously wanted to hear he would let me go home. I felt in fear of my life because of what I’ve heard is done to people in custody.
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“I’ve a general distrust of the police and I was extremely uncomfortable being interrogated, and I just wanted to get out of there. I figured that the more I gave the police what they wanted the quicker I would get out.”
Assessing testimony from the accused, the man’s former counsel and others, Justice McKelvey concluded there was room for doubt that the man’s guilty plea was unequivocal, informed and voluntary.
McKelvey said apparent “gaps in communication” between the man and his lawyer may have left him not fully appreciating the significance of a guilty plea, pressured by his earlier statement to police, and struggling to communicate his wishes.
“All of this raises genuine issues,” the judge wrote.
No plea inquiry
The judge also noted the absence of a plea inquiry when the man entered his guilty plea in early 2024.
A plea inquiry is a series of standard questions from a judge to make sure that someone understands what it means to plead guilty, the rights they give up by doing so, and the possible consequences, while also checking that the plea was voluntary and without pressure.
On its own, a judge failing to carry out a plea inquiry isn’t enough to invalidate a guilty plea.
But when an accused person asks for their plea to be set aside, McKelvey wrote, the lack of a plea inquiry becomes a bigger deal.
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“The failure to have any plea inquiry at the time of his plea reinforces my belief that [the man’s] plea may not have been voluntary,” the judge wrote.
He added there was no evidence that the man had been questioned, including by his own counsel, about the truthfulness of the original confession to police.
Referring to existing case law, McKelvey wrote that “it is not enough to find that an accused wishes, in retrospect, that he or she had not pleaded guilty. However, where a miscarriage of justice is alleged, the court must consider the whole of the evidence in assessing whether the plea was based on something other than a genuine acknowledgment of guilt.”
The man’s lack of experience in the criminal justice system, his Indigenous status and his “lack of sophistication” – he was still in high school at the time of his arrest – “may have created circumstances” that contributed to a guilty plea despite actually wanting a trial, the judge concluded.
“In light of his statement to the police, I am concerned that [the man] faced subtle pressure to plead guilty against his true intent,” McKelvey concluded.
A trial date has not yet been set.
