All charges stayed against former Steinbach teacher, coach accused of inappropriately touching students
Decision followed 'careful consideration' of judge's recent decision on similar fact evidence, Crown says
A former high school teacher and coach in Steinbach, Man., will no longer face criminal prosecution after being accused of inappropriately touching students during rugby practices.
All remaining charges against 43-year-old David Bueti were stayed during a brief appearance in a Winnipeg courtroom Wednesday morning.
Bueti was initially charged with five counts of sexual assault and three counts of sexual interference for offences alleged to have happened between February and May 2022, while he worked at Steinbach Regional Secondary School. The six students who came forward with the accusations against Bueti ranged in age from 15 to 18, police said when they first announced the charges in July 2022.
Charges involving three of those students were stayed last month.
The Crown said at the time it had determined that, based on its requirement to "consider any new information or evidence as it arises and reassess the case with the new information or evidence," there was no longer a reasonable likelihood of conviction for those charges.
In court on Wednesday, Crown attorney Jonathan Mays said the decision to stay the remaining charges against Bueti came after "careful consideration" of provincial court Judge Wanda Garreck's recent ruling against an application to use similar fact evidence in the case.
"The entirety of the charges should be stayed as we've determined there's no longer a reasonable likelihood of conviction," Mays told the court.
In an emailed statement, defence lawyer Josh Weinstein said his team was happy with the charges being stayed against Bueti, who Weinstein said has maintained his innocence since the first day he walked into the lawyer's office.
"It has been a very difficult 16-and-a-half months since the day Mr. Bueti was charged, but with today's decision, he now looks forward to the next chapter in his life," Weinstein said.
A stay means while the charges are not formally withdrawn, they are not proceeding through court at this time. The province has a year from the date charges are stayed to reinstate them.
Judge Garreck thanked both defence and Crown counsel for their professional conduct during the trial before telling Bueti, who appeared in court surrounded by family and supporters, that he was free to go.
"I understand that these proceedings are difficult for everyone involved — accused and complainants," Garreck said.
Testimony may have been impacted by 'innocent collusion': judge
If the similar fact application had been granted, prosecutors would have been allowed to use the evidence of each of the remaining three complainants to support each other's allegations and argue the alleged assaults were evidence of a pattern of conduct.
In her written decision against that application, Garreck said the students' testimony may have been impacted by "innocent collusion," because the teens all discussed their allegations against Bueti before they made their statements to police.
Garreck also wrote in the decision that those discussions "included the exchange of details of what they described Mr. Bueti did to them and to each other."
"In some instances, they discussed what they were told by others about what happened to them or to others. They each shared their experiences with others," Garreck wrote in the decision.
Garreck also wrote that the head coach of the school's rugby team testified she never saw any inappropriate action between Bueti and any of the players on the team.
The court was left with "probable concern that innocent contamination or accidental collusion in this case may affect and diminish the probative value of the similar fact evidence," Garreck wrote in the decision.
"It raises significant concern about the very foundation upon which this type of evidence is admissible, that is, the improbability of coincidence to explain the similar acts."
Three female teenagers had testified Bueti touched them inappropriately in his role as a rugby coach, Garreck's decision said.
Two of the teens testified the alleged assaults happened during rugby practice, when Bueti would "reposition or correct their form," the decision said.
One of the students testified Bueti touched her breast or chest area to "move her position." Another teen testified Bueti's "pelvic area brushed her butt," during a rugby drill, the decision said.
One of the complainants also testified that she was touched inappropriately after identifying an injury to the rib area.
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