Ontario Court of Justice
Date: 2022 05 04 Court File No.: Toronto 4817-998-20-75002788
Between:
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN
— AND —
TIMOTHY KNIGHT
Before: Justice H. Borenstein
Heard on: March 28, 2022 Reasons for Judgment released on: May 4, 2022
Counsel: Ms. E. Moore........................................................................................ counsel for the Crown Mr. J. Foy......................................................... counsel for the defendant Timothy Knight
Reasons for Judgment
1Timothy Knight is charged with three counts of domestic assault, all allegedly occurring in June 2020 during a difficult time in the relationship between Mr. Knight and the complainant, Ms. Rigato. He and Ms. Rigato had been together for a couple of years and had a son, Benjamin, who was 18 months old at the time. Ms. Rigato was living with Knight and Benjamin in Knight’s duplex, and they were planning on getting married. She also owned her own condo.
2The three charges came to light when Ms. Rigato went to police on June 24, 2020, following the last alleged assault.
3Ms. Rigato was the only witness to testify at this trial. No defence was called.
4Ms. Rigato was 33 years old at the time of the trial and 31 years old at the time of the allegations.
5Ms. Rigato testified that she was still breastfeeding Benjamin June 2020 and Mr. Knight wanted her to stop. He also wanted her to sell her condo. It was a difficult time in their relationship with ups and downs. She said June 2020 was a bad month.
The first alleged assault (the bed incident)
6Ms. Rigato testified that the day of the first alleged assault was a pretty good day. She did not think they had any conflict that day. As they were getting ready for bed, Mr. Knight put on a meditation tape to help him fall asleep, but the tape was keeping her awake. She rolled over to his side of the bed and hugged him from behind asking him to turn it off as it was keeping her awake. He pushed her hard right to the other side of the bed. Ms. Rigato testified that she almost fell off the bed. She was in disbelief how Knight went from zero to 100 in a moment. She cried.
The second assault – the Zoo incident
7On the date of this alleged assault, Rigato, Knight and Benjamin had timed entry tickets for the zoo and were running late. As they got to the car, Ms. Rigato saw a spider web in the car. She has a fear of spiders and asked Knight to look for any spiders in the car, but they saw none. As they drove, Ms. Rigato saw a spider and asked Knight to stop the car and get rid of it. Mr. Knight did not want to stop initially but then stopped abruptly, parked the car and told Rigato to take care of it herself. She said no, she was scared. He shouted at her, and his face became red with anger. Ms. Rigato figured she had to do it, so she took off her seat belt, opened her door and asked him one more time. Knight then hit Rigato in the lower back causing her considerable pain due to a previous injury. She screamed and cried, and he pushed her out of the parked car. Knight said if she did not get rid of the spider herself, he would leave her at the side of the road. All she could think of was her son in the car. A woman passed by and asked her if she was okay. She told the woman there was a bug in the car and the woman replied – “June bugs”. Rigato got back in the car. Her back was burning in pain. Knight said nothing in the car but looked angry as he drove to the zoo. Rigato told him he hit her in a vulnerable spot. He said nothing but, at the zoo, he commented on what a lovely day they were having. Once home, he retrieved Rigato’s back pain medication and put it on her beside which she took as some acknowledgement of what happened.
The third assault – the Birthday party incident
8On June 17th, Rigato wanted the family to go to her cousin’s birthday party. It was Covid so it would be a drive through appearance. Knight did not want to go but Rigato kept asking. They began to argue, and Knight said he would not even go to her cousin’s funeral. She replied she would not go to his brother’s funeral. They began shouting at each other. Knight was in her face gesticulating with his fists near his own face. As he was doing so, and coming toward her, she threw a book at his stomach to keep him away. He became more angry, and left the room but returned within seconds. Ms. Rigato was sitting on the bed. Knight grabbed her legs and pulled her to the floor. He then sat on top of her with his legs on either side of her yelling at her. She picked up a blanket and kept it between them as a buffer. He picked her up from her dress straps and shook her back and forth like a rag doll. He tore one of her straps but the other did not break and caused a bruise in the shape of the strap. Rigato turned away from Knight and tried to crawl away on her hands and knees. He held her legs. Her jumpsuit ripped in two places. She was yelling at him to stop which he then did. A photo of that bruise was introduced as an exhibit.
9Knight left the bedroom. He returned a moment later saying “oh, now we are never going to buy the house together”. He then left the bedroom again and began yelling to the backyard for help from neighbours outside. His aunt, who lived in the upstairs unit of the duplex, came downstairs and saw Rigato crying with her strap torn and bra out of place. Neighbours came in and took Benjamin who was also crying. Rigato changed her clothes and put her torn clothes in a dresser drawer. She later noticed that those clothes were removed. She saw Knight sitting out smoking a cigar with neighbours. She angrily shouted asking him where the clothes he ripped off her were. He brought a cigar to his mouth looked at Rigato, took a big drag and blew out the smoke.
10Over the next week, they were living in separate rooms within the house. This was Knight’s suggestion. They were discussing possibly separating with Benjamin spending half the time with each parent. Rigato hoped things would work out, but Knight had to acknowledge his abuse and get help.
11On June 22nd, they had an email exchange where they were going to have a conversation the next day. In that conversation, Rigato spoke about Knight’s abuse and Knight began taking notes and recording her. Further, Knight’s aunt came downstairs and told Rigato she deserved the abuse.
12Ms. Rigato called the police on June 24th and reported these three incidents.
13At 8:25 pm on the 25th, Knight’s family lawyer sent Rigato an email seeking to arrange a visit between Knight and Benjamin. Rigato testified she feared Benjamin being alone with Knight at this time and did not trust his family to supervise the visit. She was agreeable to her own father supervising the visit.
14In her evidence, she explained her fear for Ben’s safety was based on Knight’s assaultive behaviour and a history of mental health issues involving Knight and his brother. When questioned about that, she referred to one psychotic episode where Knight checked himself into the hospital believing someone was trying to poison him. Rigato testified that her concerns for Ben’s safety increased after Mr. Knight’s arrest since she would not be present.
15The following morning, Rigato wrote to the police expressing this fear for Ben’s safety and copied her own family lawyer. She testified that she wrote that follow up email because she feared the accused being alone with Ben and not to enhance her litigation position. She denied these allegations of assault were part of a family Court strategy.
16Rigato agreed that in her evidence, in relation to the third incident, she may not have used the term “staddle” or she may have said he was at the closet when the fight began. She explained that not everything comes into your mind the first time one speaks to the police.
17That was the case. No defence was called.
Submissions
18The Crown submits that complainant was credible and reliable in all material ways. Her evidence held together naturally, was uncontradicted and was internally consistent. Any added details or information, or any differences were relatively minor and easily explained by the fact that she was being questioned more extensively in Court than when she spoke to the police in a cruiser on the 24th. The Crown submits Rigato’s concerns for her son’s safety and wanting to be the primary parent were not a motive to fabricate but were bound up with concerns arising from Knight’s assaultive behaviour and anger.
19The defence submits that June 2020 was a contentious time in Knight and Rigato’s lives and Rigato had a motive to fabricate and exaggerate. Further, the June 26th email to the police which added matters not mentioned to the police on the 24th is further evidence of her motive. The defence submits that the contradiction concerning the third incident about whether accused was standing at closet threshold or coming toward Rigato undermines the Rigato’s credibility or reliability such that a funding of guilt would be unsafe.
Decision
20Has the Crown proved the accused’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt?
21Ms. Rigato was the only witness to testify at this trial. There was nothing about her testimony which caused me to doubt her truthfulness or reliability as it related to being assaulted by Mr. Knight. She struck me as a truthful and thoughtful witness who recounted what had occurred in the month of June 2020. I did not find her inconsistent in any significant way.
22Any elaboration between her statement to the police and her evidence, or inconsistencies such as the closet versus the room when the bedroom incident began, or whether he straddled her or held her on the floor and shook her, did not undermine my confidence in her as a credible and reliable witness. As she explained, when she first told the police what happened, she did not say everything in the kind of detail that arose when questioned in her evidence.
23The issue of a potential motive to lie has been raised. Knight argues that, given the relationship was ending and a dispute over custody was about to begin, Ms. Rigato had a motive to fabricate these allegations to gain an advantage in the family court proceedings and did fabricate the allegations. And she emailed the police on June 26th to further gain an advantage.
24Ms. Rigato denied fabricating these allegations. She testified she went to the police because she was assaulted three times and their attempt to talk it through was over. She emailed the police as she was concerned about Benjamin’s safety given Knight’s as assaultive behaviour, even more so once the police were called.
25A motive is one factor to consider whether it impacts on a case and whether that possibility, denied by Rigato, causes me to have a doubt about her credibility. It does not. I accept Rigato’s uncontradicted evidence that she reported these allegations because she was assaulted and not to enhance her family law position. I note as well the bruise on her arm contained in the photo supports Ms. Rigato’s evidence of the assault in the bedroom. Even if Rigato throwing the book at Knight in the circumstances she described was an assault or provocation, his subsequent conduct went far beyond any self defence or consent.
26While I accept Ms. Rigato’s evidence, I do have a doubt about the first assault – the push away in the bed due to the circumstances of that offence. Specifically, rolling over and cuddling or hugging someone from behind is an ordinary part of a marriage as may be pushing someone away lightly. The fact that the complainant says this was harder than that is likely true but, in the context of the events in the bed that night, I am not sure how far beyond that it went so as to amount to a criminal offence. He will be found not guilty of the first assault, but guilty of the second and third assaults.
Released: May 4, 2022 Signed: Justice H. Borenstein