Morinville teacher found not guilty on sexual assault charges

A St. Albert Provincial Court judge has found a Morinville junior high teacher not guilty on all counts of sexually assaulting two of his former students.

“In my opinion Mr. Dubas, you have suffered a tremendous injustice,” said judge Brian Fraser after reading the verdict. He added he hoped Dubas will continue his teaching career.

Michael Dubas, 55, was charged with sexual assault, sexual interference and sexual exploitation of two students related to allegations brought against him in October 2009, when he was a teacher at G.H. Primeau School.

Dubas was teary-eyed and hugged crying family members and supporters after the decision was announced.

The court heard closing arguments this morning. Defence lawyer Brian Vail said in court Dubas is suspended with pay pending the outcome of the trial.

Vail painted a picture of the complainants as friends who initially made the allegations to get attention at school, gossiping and laughing about it with classmates.

When their friends started asking questions and urging them to tell authorities, the complainants had to defend their allegations or lose face by admitting they lied, Vail told court.

“They had backed themselves into a corner with having to maintain a lie.”

One complainant has testified Dubas touched her breast under her shirt in February 2009 when she was 12 years old. She said the alleged incident happened when she was in a school hallway during class time putting up a poster for another teacher.

A second complainant has testified a similar incident happened between Dubas and her in October 2009 as she stood beside a friend’s locker after school.

Video from school surveillance cameras at the time shows Dubas in that section of the hallway for a total of 27 seconds, Vail said.

The complainant was not visible in the video.

“That week, with his father in the hospital ... he was in a hurry to get out of the school,” Vail said.

Vail argued it doesn’t make sense that Dubas would touch the complainant in a hallway full of students that is on camera. “Anyone in Mr. Dubas’s position ... would have to know that, if there was any complaint at all, he would be on candid camera.”

However, Crown prosecutor Karen Thorsrud said parts of the surveillance video are difficult to make out and don’t show Dubas and the complainant together.

“You can’t see in the video at the crucial moment what’s happening and that’s very unfortunate for all of us.”

Vail argued the two complainants were “the best of friends at all relevant times” and that they were known to be involved in schoolyard bullying and dishonesty.

That included an incident where one of the complainants offered to pay a boy to ask out a girl who liked him, then humiliate her by publicly dumping her.

This was “not simply Grade 8 girls stuff,” argued Vail but “some very planned and deliberate cold-blooded activities.”

Vail said four students told school staff they overheard one complainant telling classmates she was mad at Dubas and wanted to get him fired.

“It’s my submission that what started as a schoolyard fib ... escalated beyond their control,” said Vail. “Once the fibs were told the two complainants went down and incremental slippery slope to where we are now.”

Dubas testified that he never sexually touched either girl or had sexual intentions toward them or any other student.