In a rare post-verdict ruling, a judge granted Frank Stronach a mistrial
The Austro-Canadian business tycoon was found guilty of sexual assault and indecent assault last month
Last month, Frank Stronach, an Order of Canada recipient and the billionaire founder of Magna International, was found guilty of sexual assault and indecent assault.
His sentencing hearing had been scheduled for the fall.
Related: Frank Stronach’s second sexual assault trial has been delayed until 2027
But on Friday, a Toronto judge made the rare decision to grant Stronach a mistrial on the sexual assault conviction.
Stronach’s lawyer, Leora Shemesh, told the Canadian Press that the mistrial was declared due to emails presented in court that had, Stronach’s legal team argued, shown inconsistencies in one complainant’s story between the criminal trial and a separate civil complaint.
Stronach will still be sentenced for the indecent assault conviction in September, and faces an additional trial on similar charges next May, in Newmarket.
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
