Northwoods Inn owner denies allegations made against him in sex assault trial

A Saskatoon motel owner facing sexual assault and extortion charges denied the allegations made against him in court.

John Pontes, 75, operates the Northwoods Inn and Suites on Idylwyld Drive. He took the stand in his defence in Saskatoon provincial court on Tuesday.

On Monday, the complainant testified Pontes raped her in his suite in the Northwoods Inn. She also alleged Pontes offered an exchange of accommodations or a job at the motel for sex.

“I had no intercourse with her or anybody else,” Pontes testified.

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Pontes said he never touched the complainant, denying her allegation that he also touched her breasts in a back room in the motel on the same day before the alleged rape.

Pontes said the woman was a tenant at the motel from April until June last year.

Pontes, who has managed the motel for the past 14 years, said he evicted the complainant after warning her about drug use, as well as having too many visitors.

“I felt sorry for her, but we have a business to protect,” Pontes said on the stand.

Defence lawyer, Patrick Fagan, argued it was a “classic he said, she said case.” He added there was a lack of physical evidence of the assault to support the complainant’s testimony.

The Crown argued the woman was able to give a similar description of Pontes’ suite, as he explained on the stand.

The trial concluded on Tuesday and the judge will make his decision in November.

Pontes will be on trial again in February, for three other charges including sexual assault, extortion and uttering threats to cause death.

Two days after being charged last November, Pontes has been out on bail.