MANDEL: Judge won't put 94-year-old billionaire Frank Stronach behind bars
· Toronto Sun
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Age has its privileges — disgraced auto parts billionaire Frank Stronach will not be going to jail for indecent assault.
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Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy made the surprising announcement at the end of Stronach’s sentencing hearing.
“I haven’t decided what sentence I will impose,” she said Thursday. “I have, however, very firmly decided in my mind that it will not be a jail term. I will not order custody in the circumstances of this case for a man who is 94 years old.”
Prosecutors had asked for a six-month jail term for Stronach’s conviction of a historical assault on a woman almost 50 years ago. His lawyer Leora Shemesh called that “excessive, unreasonable and un-Canadian” and urged Molloy to grant an absolute discharge — meaning no punishment and no criminal record.
Will the judge really go that far?
Where once Stronach, the founder of Magna International, was facing 12 historical charges — including rape — in the end only one count of indecent assault ended with a conviction. A second guilty verdict — for sexual assault — was voided after Molloy declared a surprise mistrial in July after new evidence was brought forward by Shemesh that contradicted the second woman’s testimony. That’s currently being appealed by the Crown.
Businessman rubbed groin against woman’s underwear
For the lone conviction, a former legal secretary testified she and Stronach had dinner at Rooney’s — the Toronto bar and disco owned by the businessman at the time — in 1977 and then went back to his apartment where he suddenly pushed her face first over the upholstered arm of a chair, pulled up her skirt and ground his groin against her underwear.
She admitted she didn’t see his penis, but “It wasn’t a cucumber,” she testified. “It wasn’t a carrot.”
Shocked, she said she stood up and left.
Now in her mid-70s, the woman used two canes to approach the witness box and calmly deliver her victim impact statement. “I am 20 years younger than the defendant,” she began. “I felt ambushed, I felt overpowered, I felt my physical privacy was violated without my consent. My body and my sense of security were instantly injured.”
Stronach, 45 at the time, wore a blank expression after the assault and it left her feeling dazed and confused, she said. “I felt that I deserved an apology. I was upset when none was forthcoming.”
Crown argued jail time and sex offender registry
Despite the passage of time and his advanced age, Crown attorney Jelena Vlacic said Stronach should do jail time and be placed on the sex offender registry for 10 years. Otherwise, it would send a message to the rich and powerful that all they have to do is wait it out and they can avoid accountability.
“People must be held accountable for their conduct,” Vlacic argued.
As the tanned and snow-haired Stronach listened intently, his eloquent lawyer regaled the court with many of his achievements over his 94 years — his rags-to-riches story, his many awards, acts of philanthropy and generous mentorship. Stronach is no ordinary offender but a “visionary,” and a “man of substance” who has lived an “unblemished” life, Shemesh said.
But what about his upcoming trial in Newmarket on more historical charges? The lawyer insisted that can’t be considered by the judge.
Defence contends indecent assault least serious offence
While saying she wasn’t minimizing what happened, Shemesh also maintained the indecent assault — a charge rolled into sexual assault in 1983 — was at the least serious end of the spectrum. “It’s not Epstein; it’s not Harvey Weinstein.”
She filed 17 character letters on Stronach’s behalf, most from current and former employees, which described how respectful he was toward women. Yet to this day, Shemesh complained, social media falsely refers to him as a serial rapist.
This prosecution — “which mostly failed,” she noted — has dragged his reputation through the mud and unfairly labelled him a predator, she continued. Stronach’s speaking engagements were cancelled, he was denied entry to the U.S., his name has been stripped off municipal buildings in York Region , and he’s even been told his induction into the automotive hall of fame is being revoked.
“How much more?” Shemesh demanded. “Whatever punishment the Ministry of the Attorney General is attempting to garner, that punishment has already been meted out.”
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Stronach’s mental state has also suffered due to the stressful ordeal of watching his life’s work overshadowed by the salacious trial. “I think it’s affected him cognitively,” Shemesh said. “It’s been difficult to watch.”
Jail time and putting him on the sex offender registry would be “unjust and unfair,” she concluded.
Molloy will deliver her sentence on Dec. 11. But this much we now know: Stronach will be spending Christmas at home.