Man acquitted of indecency charge
Published Saturday September 6th, 2008
A 31-year-old Fredericton man was acquitted Friday of a charge of committing an indecent act on a busy downtown street in broad daylight.
Robert Keith MacDonald, of 114 Burpee St., was arrested July 16 after a woman said she saw him walking down King Street that morning rubbing his exposed genitals.
The woman testified to that effect Friday.
"I have no doubt about the testimony of the witness," Judge Mary Jane Richards said.
But, she said, she wasn't satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt.
Richards said the woman was the only person who reported the incident alleged to have happened downtown at about 10:30 a.m. on a Wednesday.
The witness said she recognized MacDonald because she had seen him in or around the King Street offices of the Department of Social Development before.
MacDonald testified to frequently visiting a restaurant in the area.
The witness testified she was walking on the sidewalk that morning when she saw MacDonald.
"Robbie was walking towards me and pleasuring himself," she said.
She quickly averted her gaze, she said.
Under cross-examination by defence attorney Randy Maillet, the witness said was sure she wasn't mistaken.
"I think it's pretty hard to confuse that with anything else," she said.
She went over to a group of people who were smoking by a bench, she said, and she called police on her cellphone.
She told the people what she saw, but no one else had noticed it.
Maillet offered two defences. One rested on MacDonald's testimony that he was probably nowhere near the downtown on the date in question.
The other was that the witness may have been "innocently mistaken" about what was going on.
He suggested it didn't make sense that MacDonald would do such a thing on a street corner where he's well-known.
Crown prosecutor Robert Murray said the witness had established she knew who she saw on the street that morning and saw what he was doing.
He also noted the defence had failed to establish MacDonald wasn't in the vicinity.
MacDonald took the stand in his own defence Friday.
He testified he usually goes to a bar Tuesday nights and that unless he needs to work, he sleeps until the noon hour Wednesdays.
Murray asked MacDonald whether his parents could corroborate his whereabouts on the morning in question.
"You can ask them," MacDonald said under oath.
When pressed about whether his parents would take the stand and testify to that effect, MacDonald replied: "I believe in God, and I'm not going to get my parents to swear on the Bible."
In the end, MacDonald, the witness and a police officer were the only people to provide testimony.
MacDonald clapped and then gave the thumbs up after the judge delivered her decision.
MacDonald remains in custody. He pleaded guilty to a charge of breach of probation for contacting his former spouse.
He returns to court Sept. 12 for sentencing on that matter.
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