A lawyer for the former principal of H. B. Beal Secondary and former member of the London Police Services Board says his client is relieved after the Crown chose to withdraw charges against Michael Deeb.
Deeb was charged by OPP in April 2018 with sexual assault and sexual exploitation in relation to a female student between 2000 and 2001.
Lawyer Faisal Joseph confirmed to Global News that the charges were withdrawn by the Crown on Wednesday.
“(In) an acquittal, a judge decides who’s telling the truth and who isn’t and beyond a reasonable doubt. Whereas with this, the Crown voluntarily withdrew the charges and then the judge dismissed them formally,” he explained.
“So the Crown actually brings an application and says, ‘We are voluntarily withdrawing these charges against Mr. Deeb. The complainant no longer wishes to go forward with this for whatever her personal reasons are.'”
According to Joseph, the Crown “took into account all of the factors” before withdrawing the charges, “including the wishes of the complainant, the evidence from the preliminary inquiry, the contradictions in that evidence.”
Joseph added that Deeb has been “humbled by the support of his friends and family for the last two-and-a-half years” and he’s now in a position “where he can move forward.”
“He was the principal of Beal school so I would assume now that he would go back to work. But these are things that he’s going to have to be worked out. This is fresh news as of a few hours ago.”
Deeb took a leave of absence from the school starting Jan. 30, 2018 — roughly two months before charges were laid — in the wake of misconduct allegations against him.
He had already stepped down from the London Police Services Board in December 2017 after a Facebook post from local poet and teacher Najwa Zebian alleging sexual harassment.
In an email to Global News on Wednesday afternoon, the Thames Valley District School Board said it “has been made aware that the charges against Mr. Deeb have been withdrawn. At this time, he continues to be on an unpaid leave of absence.”