A former Vernon teacher and principal entered not guilty pleas to a pair of perjury counts as her Supreme Court trial began Tuesday in Vernon.
The case against Deborah Louise Ashton, 48, stems from her first Supreme Court trial in 2011 where she was facing five counts of allegedly having a sexual relationship with a former student, a matter that was heard before a judge and jury.
That trial ended with a hung jury.
The case was re-tried in 2012, in front of a Supreme Court judge alone, and Ashton was found not guilty on all counts.
Crown prosecutor Don Mann – who was not involved in either of Ashton’s previous trials – said in his opening that Ashton was charged with perjury over testimony she gave in regards to a bracelet she allegedly gave her accuser, as well the picking up and dropping off of a child at a daycare centre.
Mann said Ashton’s testimony was knowingly false.
“Crown has to prove that the accused made a false statement, knew it was false and intended to mislead by making a false statement,” said Mann.
Mann spent most of the opening morning submitting an application to have the accuser’s testimony transcript from the first trial admitted as evidence.
The accuser from the previous two trials can’t be named because of a publication ban.
Ashton’s lawyer, G. Jack Harris – who argued for her in the first trial – vehemently objected to Crown’s application, stating there are 201 pages of testimony for judge Geoff Barrow to read, but only four pages pertain to the purchase of a bracelet.
“So if 197 pages are not relevant to the bracelet, what are they relevant to?” said Harris.
“The testimony has no probative value to counts one or two. We’re here on a matter of buying a bracelet and the pick-up and drop-off of a child at daycare.”
Mann said he had no plans to re-try Ashton on any of the sexual relationship charges.
Barrow, who is hearing the matter alone, will rule on the admissibility of the testimony transcript today.
Ashton’s accuser from the last two trials is among five witnesses Crown plans to call.
The first two witnesses – a police officer and a jeweler – were both slated to take the stand Tuesday.
The trial is scheduled to last four days.
