There are now 5 sexual assault charges for Ghomeshi to face, along with one charge of overcoming resistance by choking. The remaining charges involve four women.
“The Crown has reviewed the cases and determined it had no reasonable prospect of conviction,” Crown attorney Michael Callaghan told media Tuesday.
The dropping of these two charges means that two of the women who came forward to tell their stories to police and Crown are no longer involved. Of the four remaining, only one, former Trailer Park actress Lucy DeCoutere, has been named; DeCoutere asked for a publication ban on her name to be lifted, the other three did not.
Jian Ghomeshi: Two trials
Ghomeshi will face two trials, in the first, running from Feb. 1 and until Feb. 19 of 2016, he will face the charges of three of the woman, including DeCoutere. In the second trial, from June 6 through the tenth next year, he will face the charges of the other woman; those charges, court has heard, are factually different enough that a separate trial was appropriate.
Marie Henein, lead attorney for Ghomeshi, who is out on $100,000 bail, has said all along that her client would be pleading not guilty to each of the charges. She and her co-defense, Danielle Rotitaille, were at the College Park courthouse to speak with Crown today but declined comment upon leaving.
On October 30, four days after being fired by the CBC, Mr. Ghomeshi wrote online that he would “meet these allegations directly” and he has insisted the alleged assaults took place within the context of consensual rough sex.
As conditions of his bail, Ghomeshi surrendered his passport and must live at his mother’s posh Thornhill home.
