TUESDAY
K A M L O O P S
THIS WEEK
Tuesday, January 21, 2014 X Volume 26 No. 7 www.kamloopsthisweek.com X 30 cents at Newsstands
Jury set to decide fate of accused Benjamin Archie charged with sexually assaulting woman in 2012 By Tim Petruk STAFF REPORTER tim@kamloopsthisweek.com
Caroline and Joe Perszon just celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary and hold the distinction of living in Rayleigh longer than anybody else. Dave Eagles/ KTW
In love for a Rayleigh long time By Dale Bass STAFF REPORTER dale@kamloopsthisweek.com
This is a love story — times two. It’s a story of two young people, one from Germany, the other from Poland, who happened to meet while leaving their respective countries after the Second World War, both bound for Canada. If Joe Perszon hadn’t headed into a chapel one day, he would
never have met sisters Helen, Josephine and Caroline and this story would never have been written. But, they did meet and Joe was entranced by Caroline, enough that, when they arrived in Canada and went their separate ways, they continued to stay in touch. Joe headed to B.C., while Caroline stopped in Manitoba, finding a job there. Finally, Joe, who had found
work cutting down trees, sent $250 to Caroline and asked her to come to Kamloops. “And then, you surprised me,” he said to Caroline while chatting with KTW. “You came out.” Caroline said it was she who finally popped the question because it was taking Joe too long to do it. On Jan. 19, 1952, the two were married. X See 62 YEARS A11
A jury is about to begin deliberations to decide whether a Kamloops native elder is guilty of violently raping a woman less than half his age in 2012. Benjamin Archie’s two-week sexual-assault trial in B.C. Supreme Court came to an end on Monday, Jan. 20, with closing submissions from Crown and defence. The 72-year-old stands accused of sexually assaulting a 32-year-old Kamloops woman near a logging road outside Merritt on Sept. 3, 2012. In her closing statement to the jury, Crown prosecutor Sarah Firestone said Archie plied the victim, whose name is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, with a bottle of watermelon-flavoured vodka. “The accused attacked her when she was vulnerable, attacking her physically and sexually, far away from where anyone could hear her,” Firestone said. The jury heard that specific bottle of booze — watermelon Smirnoff — was found by an RCMP investigator in the area where the victim said she was attacked. The bottle had Archie’s fingerprints on it, but not those of the victim. Court heard Archie and the victim, who knew each other prior to the incident, met on Tranquille Road hours before the alleged attack.
Archie is believed to have offered her a ride to the Kelowna area, which she accepted. According to the victim’s testimony, Archie drove to the sundance grounds on the Coldwater reserve near Merritt, where he prayed briefly before driving up a dirt logging road. At some point, she said, the two of them left the vehicle and he violently choked and sexually assaulted her on the forest floor. The victim testified that, as Archie drove on the Okanagan Connector between Merritt and Kelowna, she — half-naked, drunk and in bare feet — jumped out of the moving vehicle. One passerby described her face as “like a tragedy mask.” She was taken to a Kelowna hospital. The jury heard a doctor found 14 scratches on the victim’s back, which could have been caused by fallen pine needles. She also had pine needles in her hair. Defence lawyer Ray Dieno pointed to the absence of any evidence linking Archie to the sex assault — including inconclusive tests by a doctor in Kelowna, who couldn’t determine whether the victim had been assaulted. He urged jurors to remember his client is presumed innocent and suggested Archie has been “falsely charged.” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley is expected to give his instructions to the jurors on Tuesday, Jan. 21, after which they will begin deliberations.
THE ALL-NEW 2014 CHEVY CRUZE 2LS AIR, TILT, CRUISE, PW, PL, 1.8L, 6 SPEED MANUAL, BLUETOOTH, USB, STEERING WHEEL AUDIO CONTROLS, AM/FM/CD, XM RADIO, 6 SPEAKER SOUND
20,840
or
$
117
bi-weekly
PRICE BASED ON 60 MONTH LEASE WITH $0 DOWN @ 1.5%. VEHICLE MAY NOT BE EXACTLY AS SHOWN.
DL#5359
starting at $
950 Notre Dame Drive - 250-372-2551
www.smithgm.com