Haakon Anrtzen will have another day in court.
The former Yukon Party MLA for Copperbelt, who resigned his seat in disgrace last year after being convicted on three counts of indecent assault, appealed his conviction to a panel of British Columbia judges.
The appeal was successful.
Justice John Hall questioned the credibility of the two women who alleged that Arntzen assaulted them during the 1970s, when they were underage.
“I would allow the appeal of the appellant and order a new trial on the three counts upon which he was convicted,” Hall said in a 15-page written decision released Friday.
“This order, of course, renders moot the Crown’s sentence appeal.”
Crown lawyers had also appealed Arntzen’s 15-month conditional sentence.
Arntzen appealed his convictions on the grounds that the trial judge, Yukon Supreme Court Justice Leigh Gower, erred in taking judicial notice of the term “body memory.”
Gower also erred in his “credibility analysis” and failed to take precedent into account, according to Arntzen’s appeal.
Gower was correct in accepting one complainant’s statements that memories of the alleged assaults were stored in her body.
But Gower “took an unfavourable view of (Arntzen’s) credibility,” said Hall.
“I do not consider it could be found, on a full consideration of his evidence and what he said to the police, that he was inconsistent in his narrative as found by the trial judge.”
Gower’s overall “credibility analysis” was flawed, he said.
There was no jury for Arntzen’s previous trial.
A date for a new trial has yet to be set.