Jacob Hoggard leaves a Toronto court on May 9, 2022. In a different Ontario courtroom on Friday, a jury found Hoggard not guilty of sexually assaulting a young woman in northeastern Ontario eight years ago, the culmination of a roughly two-week trial. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard was acquitted on Friday of sexually assaulting a young woman in northeastern Ontario in 2016. The verdict came at the end of a two-week trial in Haileybury, Ontario, where both Hoggard and the accuser shared vastly different accounts of the incident.
The jury deliberated for less than six hours before delivering the unanimous verdict, with Hoggard present in court. Dressed in a dark suit, the former Hedley frontman listened as the not-guilty decision was read aloud.
Hoggard’s defense team released a statement, expressing his gratitude to the jury for "acknowledging that the evidence was too unreliable to secure a conviction." The statement added that Hoggard is thankful for the support of his family and friends and plans to return to British Columbia to reunite with them.
Despite the acquittal, Hoggard remains incarcerated, serving a five-year sentence for a separate sexual assault conviction. This prior case was not disclosed to the jurors during the recent trial.
At the heart of this case was the issue of consent. Both parties agreed they had a sexual encounter in a hotel room in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, after a Hedley concert in June 2016. However, the woman, who was 19 at the time, accused Hoggard of rape, claiming he assaulted her physically and verbally. She told the court that she repeatedly said no and tried to resist.
Hoggard, on the other hand, testified that the encounter was consensual. He described their time together as a mutual one-night stand that involved flirting and kissing, denying all allegations of violence or coercion.
In his instructions to the jury, Justice Robin Tremblay explained that a guilty verdict required proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the woman did not consent, and that Hoggard was aware of her lack of consent.
This trial marks the latest legal battle for Hoggard, who rose to fame in 2004 on Canadian Idol and whose band, Hedley, went on hiatus in 2018 amidst sexual misconduct allegations.
