Some who knew James Ellis were shocked last summer when police revealed the seemingly pleasant Penticton man was actually a fugitive on the lam from Ontario, where he was accused of sexual assault.
Now, having been exonerated on two of three charges, he’s trying to clear his name. Two of them, actually.
James Ellis, as he was known locally, was born Edward Ellis, but changed his first name after he fled from Toronto police in 1999.
“I knew they were looking for me,” the 52-year-old said in a phone interview from his new home in Montreal. “I knew that there was charges.”
After leaving Ontario, Ellis found his way to the Okanagan, where he met his wife, with whom he has a son. The couple eventually moved to a home in Naramata and opened the Knot Just Beads store in downtown Penticton.
The store closed in February 2012 and Ellis began doing contract work for a Vancouver-based bead supplier. That came to an end in July 2012 when police arrested him at home on a Canada-wide warrant.
In the days that followed, a neighbour told the Western News that Ellis was friendly and helpful, as did workers at some downtown businesses near the former bead shop. Those interviewed were surprised to learn a bulletin on the RCMP website said Ellis was wanted for “a brutal sexual assault on a female he sought at a private party.”
Mounties said he had been tracked down by the Toronto Police Service fugitive squad, which had received a tip regarding Ellis’s whereabouts. The squad’s lead investigator on the case could not be reached for comment.
Following his arrest, Ellis was taken back to Toronto, where he was charged with one count each of sexual assault, forcible confinement and assault causing bodily harm.
The Crown later withdrew two of the charges and Ellis pleaded guilty to the single count of assault causing bodily harm, for which he received a four-month jail term, according to Brendan Crawley, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General. A court transcript and reasons for sentence were not available.
Ellis, however, said he was wrongly accused of the more serious charges.
“None of this was ever proven in court. There was no evidence. That was just hearsay,” he said.
According to him, the female victim arrived at a party at his home on Dec. 31, 2008, and began kissing him. Shortly afterwards, two other females arrived and assaulted the victim for an unknown reason.
Ellis said he took the victim to a vehicle and drove away to protect her safety, but she demanded to be taken back to the party, and threatened to tell police he raped her if he didn’t comply. Ellis grew angry at the threat, which he said she later made good on, and punched her.
“I just lost it on her. I’m not denying the fact I hit the girl. I did hit the girl,” Ellis said.
“I grew up as a fighter, but I didn’t sexually assault anybody, and that’s the worst of it.”
Following his release from prison in April, Ellis joined his wife and son in Montreal, because remaining in the Penticton area became too difficult for them following news of his arrest.
“People, they assume you’re guilty right away for everything before they even know the facts,” Ellis said.
He hopes those here who remember him as James can look past his past.
“How they knew me is who I am,” he said, “not what police painted me out to be.”
