I will be found not guilty: Bonnie McLachlan

The accuser, now an adult and cannot be named, was the first witness for the Crown to be called to testify on Monday.

He had given the court a timeline for the alleged relationship, which he said started during a ski trip to Big River in November 1993. He had told the court McLachlan had initiated the relationship. The alleged relationship lasted until after another school trip to Banff, Alta. in May 1994.

“During that ski trip, he realized Bonnie… had some feelings for him just because of what she was saying to him,” Claxton-Viczko said, recounting the accuser’s testimony outside of the court room. “And from there, it progressed into a sexual relationship.”

The full-fledged sexual nature of the relationship allegedly began by January 1994.

The alleged victim had testified earlier this week that his first sexual encounter with Bonnie McLachlan was after a workout in the California Fitness gym, in McLachlan’s car.

But McLachlan testified Wednesday that she would have never driven him home alone. She said it was possible that she and her husband gave the boy a ride home after working out at the gym.

“It couldn’t have been me alone because my husband and I worked out together,” she said.

She said that if she and her husband drove him home, it may have been on an occasion that his parents could not pick him up. But she continued to assert that she would not have driven him home alone during her cross-examination by Claxton-Viczko.

McLachlan said the boy’s parents gave their permission for him to work out at the California Fitness gym with other football players, even though he was not on the football team. Her husband James had testified earlier that day that he helped young football players and prospective players train at the gym.

The alleged relationship happened when McLachlan was in her early 30s and the accuser was in his teens.

McLachlan was one of the teachers participating in the band/choir trip to Banff, where she was to supervise the students and play the piano.

Claxton-Viczko asked her about driving the accuser and two other boys to Banff. McLachlan said that administration approved her giving the boys a ride to Banff, and that it was because there was no room for her on the bus taking the group from Prince Albert.

For whatever reason, she said, these boys were in my car, with administration’s approval. “They would have approved the boys in my car.”

When asked if she couldn’t have asked for three girls to ride with her to Banff instead, McLachlan said, she didn’t make that choice because there was no truth to those rumours, so it was not an issue for her.

Another former student on the trip testified that he saw McLachlan in a hot tub with the accuser, on his lap and kissing him. A former student had also testified she and the accuser were touching hands and each other’s legs. McLachlan denied the accusations.

She said she never had sex with the student at any location.

After her testimony, the court adjourned for a brief break, and the trial was delayed as the Crown prosecutor was trapped in an elevator in the court house. Once freed, the trial resumed after a 40-minute delay.

Earlier on Wednesday, McLachlan’s husband refuted claims that his wife had even had an affair with anyone.

“She has never been unfaithful to me,” James McLachlan told the court.

When asked by Claxton-Viczko whether he had installed a recorder in his wife’s car because he had suspicions that she was being unfaithful, he replied, “Why would I have reason to do that?”

James McLachlan told the court that he and his wife spent time together at the California Fitness gym, where the two had a membership. He said the two worked out at the gym in the evenings, while he, lifted weights and she, a one-time aerobics instructor, helped him with his stretches.

McLachlan, now retired, was a teacher at Carlton Comprehensive during the 1993-1994 school year. He was a former football player, who at one time had a tryout with the Minnesota Vikings, but due to an injury, quit football but continued to weight train.

He said that the alleged victim also trained at the gym, but he never worked out with him.

When asked by Claxton-Viczko if his wife may have gone to the gym alone, McLachlan replied that “could have happened.”

McLachlan was the last of three defence witnesses to be called by defence counsel Peter Abrametz. Jr. Wednesday morning.

The first to testify was the former principal of Queen Mary school, where Bonnie McLachlan worked and the alleged victim was a Grade 9 student.

Gloria Lennox told the court that Bonnie McLachlan’s teaching assistant, Wanda Kent, came to her with concerns about McLachlan’s relationship with one of her students. This had happened prior to the May 1994 trip to Banff.

“Ms. McLachlan was telling her things that made her think she was forming a friendship with that student,” Lennox told the court. She said Kent told her that McLachlan had “feelings” for the student.

Lennox said it raised red flags because teachers tried to keep a professional distance from students. She said Kent’s concerns were brought to administrators. But Lannox said she doesn’t remember Kent telling her about anything sexual between McLachlan and the student.

Lennox said officials were concerned because McLachlan was to supervise students on the school trip to Banff, and the student was also to attend. The student’s parents had called her, concerned the trip would not go on as planned on May 25.

She said the boy’s mother was aware her son was seeing McLachlan away from school, at the fitness centre, but she and his father did not have any concerns. Lennox then drafted a letter, she said, which stated that the parents did not have concerns about their son weightlifting with McLachlan and about the field trip. She said the boy’s father signed the letter.

The field trip went ahead, but afterwards, the Sask. Rivers administration received an anonymous phone call, she said, saying there were some concerns about the Banff trip.

School officials were asked to interview students that went on the trip, which Lennox said she did, and took notes.

The court also heard from former Queen Mary vice-principal Alan Nunn, who said prior to the Banff trip, there was some concern about McLachlan going on the school trip.

He said school officials talked to McLachlan prior to the trip and “reminded Bonnie McLachlan of the professional distance she needed to keep on the trip.”

He said officials heard there were times on the trip where McLachlan could not be accounted for, where they didn’t know where she was.

The trial will resume Thursday morning.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames

by Thia James

I will be found not guilty: Bonnie McLachlan

What's Trending