A retired military lieutenant-colonel accused of sexual assault in Winnipeg vehemently denied the allegations against her during testimony Wednesday, as her trial concluded with the prosecution urging a judge to convict her.
“I’m happily married. I have a distinguished career of 31 years. I never would do that. I did not touch [him],” Darla Oja, 51, told a judge on the second and final day of her trial.
“Could it have happened? Probably. Maybe. I didn’t see it happen. But I know, your honour, that I did not grab [him].”
Oja is accused of grabbing the buttocks of a lower-ranking reservist twice at a military retirement event at the McGregor Street Armoury, a Canadian Armed Forces site in Winnipeg, in March 2023. She is also accused of following the man into another room and threatening to ruin his career if he told anyone.
CBC News is not identifying the 38-year-old man because he alleges he is a victim of sexual assault.
Oja said she briefly met the complainant for the first time at the event but would have been physically unable to grab him in the way he described because she’d injured her knee that night in a fall, after previously getting replacement surgery on it.
She also said she would have been unable to follow him into another room and threaten him seconds later, as the man described in his own testimony a day earlier, because of that injury.
Military reservist accuses now-retired senior officer of sexual assault at 2023 Winnipeg work event
During cross-examination, Crown attorney Amanda Heslop suggested Oja was intoxicated by the approximately six drinks she had that night to mitigate her knee pain, and in that state grabbed the complainant.
“I never grabbed [his] ass,” Oja said. “You are wrong in your assumptions.”
She also denied being confronted that night over the alleged assault by Lt.-Col. Gillian Dulle, who was the complainant’s commanding officer. Dulle testified Tuesday she saw the assault happen and was the one who ended up reporting it.
Dulle also testified she ended up reporting the alleged assault after realizing she had a duty to, under a controversial former military policy that was scrapped not long after.
Military dropping policy ordering members to report sexual misconduct or racism
Oja was emotional at times during her testimony, as she described having her military command position removed during a phone call less than a month after the event, but not learning why until much later.
Her husband, Terry Oja, who was also at the event, testified he watched her closer than usual that night because of the fall and never saw her touch anyone.
However, he did describe another woman he said pursued the complainant that night. When presented with details of that account Tuesday, the complainant said he didn’t recall anything like that happening.
During closing submissions, defence lawyer Phillip Millar raised questions about what he described as the lack of military investigation into the incident and failure to interview other witnesses who were there, telling the court Oja wanted to go to trial to “clear her name.”
“She gave 31 years of dedicated service to this country,” Millar told provincial court Judge Lisa LaBossiere.
“The evidence before you comes nowhere close to beyond a reasonable doubt. Because, your honour, nobody in this courtroom saw Darla Oja’s hand touch [him].”
Millar also told LaBossiere he wished he could show the court the kind of military dinner in question, so it could see “what people do to each other” at such events.
“There’s often property damage, recklessness. There’s no saying that somebody couldn’t have walked by at some point and grabbed his butt,” he said. “It just seems like people were hammered.”
New law to strip Canada’s military of power to handle sexual assault cases
Prosecutor Heslop said there was no evidence to support the defence theory that the complainant only went along with the report because he didn’t want to contradict his commanding officer, who had already raised it with superiors.
She said while witnesses like Dulle were drinking that night, they were clear about what they remembered and what they didn’t. Heslop also told LaBossiere she didn’t think there should be weight given to a suggestion the report of the assault was informed by a bad relationship between Dulle and Oja.
“People can not get along and not have the level of animus that would lead to something of this nature,” Heslop said, adding Oja was scheduled to be medically released and retire from the military only a few months after the event.
The Crown also challenged both Oja and her husband’s ability to recall such specific elements of that night’s events so long after they happened. Both said during testimony that was possible because they spent significant time thinking back to the night in question because of the allegations.
LaBossiere reserved her decision to a later date.
