Six trials await Gilbert Rozon from December

The civil trials arising from the prosecution of six alleged victims of the ex-boss of Just for Laughs, Gilbert Rozon, will continue from next December, we have learned The Press by consulting court documents. Director Lyne Charlebois will get the ball rolling on December 9, 2024, then five trials will follow in 2025.

According to M^e Anne-Julie Asselin, of the Trudel Johnston & Lspérance law firm, which represents nine of Gilbert Rozon’s alleged victims in individual civil suits, “the six cases are now registered and ready for trial”. Judge Frédéric Pérodeau confirmed the trial dates in a decision rendered on December 12.

The lawsuit filed by director Lyne Charlebois will be the first in a long series. It will begin on December 9, 2024 and will extend over a period of ten days, until December 20.

M^me Charlebois, who is suing Mr. Rozon for a sum of 1.7 million, alleges that she was “trapped”, then “raped” in 1982 in the Montreal residence of the head of Just for Laughs. Her sexual relationship was at no time consensual, she asserts, which Gilbert Rozon disputes.

Lyne Charlebois, aged 24 at the time, had hosted Gilbert Rozon for dinner at her home, with her partner. After the meal, she would have agreed to leave the home to discuss a photography contract, but on the way, Mr. Rozon would have made a detour to his home to “change his shirt”. It was at this time that the attack was allegedly committed. Mr. Rozon admits to having had a relationship with her, but assures that it was consensual.

“Fantasy” or consensual relationships, argues Rozon

Mr. Rozon, who has a background in law, underwent interrogations in advance, a preliminary step to a civil trial, most of which will take place in 2023. In all cases, he either denied having had sexual relations, or accused the women who had filed the complaint of having “fantasized” or “fabricated” these stories, or claimed that they were completely consensual.

The lawsuit filed by Annick Charette, who is suing Gilbert Rozon for a sum of 1.3 million, will follow from January 9 to 24, 2025. M^me Charette accuses the ex-humor mogul of having raped her in 1980 in his residence in Saint-Sauveur, but also of having “invented from scratch a scenario that reversed the roles” during his criminal trial.

Remember that Gilbert Rozon was acquitted in December 2020 of the charges of rape and indecent assault against him. Judge Mélanie Hébert indicated that there remained a “reasonable doubt”, even if her version appeared “less plausible” than that of Annick Charette.

Unlike the criminal, the civil requires demonstrating by a balance of probabilities – rather than beyond a reasonable doubt – the responsibility of Gilbert Rozon.

Patricia Tulasne will have her trial

From February 3 to 18, it will be the turn of actress Patricia Tulasne to take the court test. She is suing Gilbert Rozon for 1.6 million.

Patricia Tulasne, who was spokesperson for the Les Courageuses group, whose attempt at collective action was rejected in the Supreme Court, claims to have herself been raped in 1994, following a dinner at the restaurant Le Piémontais, with friends and actors from the play The idiots’ dinner, in which she starred. She alleges that she was attacked after Mr. Rozon took her home in Outremont.

Mr. Rozon acknowledges that a sexual relationship did take place, but asserts that it was consensual. He accuses him of having “distorted the reality of a simple adventure”.

The procedure brought by researcher Anne-Marie Charette, who claims to have been “kidnapped and sexually assaulted” in 1987, will take place from March 17 to 27, 2025. She is suing Mr. Rozon for 1.29 million.

In her lawsuit, Anne-Marie Charette claims that Mr. Rozon made “incessant and insistent calls” for her to bring him a file at the Hôtel du Parc where he was. M^me Charette initially refused to go there until her boss Richard Bleau asked her to go. Once in her room, Gilbert Rozon closed the door and threw himself on her, despite her protests.

During his preliminary interrogation, Gilbert Rozon described Anne-Marie Charette’s story as a “fabulation”.

“It’s completely false, and pure invention,” he said. […] I don’t know his motivations. Money, envy, jealousy, rejection, the quest for publicity, wanting to be part of a community that participates as a pack on a subject. […] Today, I imagine they are financial because it is stated quite clearly. But I don’t know them. »

Jean-Guy Moreau’s daughter will be heard

Sophie Moreau, the daughter of the late comedian Jean-Guy Moreau – a friend of Rozon – is also expected in Superior Court in 2025, from May 21 to June 6. She is suing Mr. Rozon for a sum of 1.25 million. She claims to have been “sexually harassed and assaulted” when she was a teenager in 1988 and 1989, at the ages of 15 and 16. At the time, Gilbert Rozon was 33 years old.

In his preliminary interrogation, Gilbert Rozon rather claims to have had a romantic relationship with Sophie Moreau’s sister, Véronique. He believes that Sophie, who worked at Just for Laughs as a receptionist until 2017, was always jealous of her sister and that she invented this story, like a “fantasy”.

“She was not someone who attracted me, I found her surly and vindictive,” said Gilbert Rozon during his interrogation.

Finally, the trial arising from the prosecution of the artist Danie Frenette, hired in 1987 by Juste pour laughs to organize the street entertainment component of the festival, will take place from September 8 to 23.

She claims to have been raped the first time in July 1988 during a party organized at the Outremont residence of Gilbert Rozon, then a second time in the fall of the same year, upon her return from a stay in France. . She is suing him for a sum of 2.2 million.

No amicable agreement at the moment

According to M^e Asselin, one of the lawyers on file at Trudel Johnston & Lspérance, to date there have been no negotiations with Gilbert Rozon’s lawyers to reach an amicable agreement. But nothing prevents the parties from discussing between now and next December, she said.

Three other women filed civil suits against Gilbert Rozon in 2022: Guylaine Courcelles (1.9 million), Marylena Sicari (1.25 million) and Martine Roy, the sister of Mr. Rozon’s ex-wife (1 .35 million). Their trial date is not yet known, but they could be added to the already busy 2025 calendar (in the fall), or even fall into the first quarter of 2026.

For his part, Gilbert Rozon, who is represented by M^e Pascal A. Pelletier is suing hosts Julie Snyder and Pénélope McQuade for $450,000 in defamation, who called him a sexual assaulter on television. The two presenters tried to block this lawsuit by arguing that it aimed to silence them, but their request was dismissed in the Court of Appeal in March 2022.

Even if the Court ruled in favor of the complainants in one or other of these cases, Gilbert Rozon does not risk any prison sentence, since these are not criminal trials. However, he would have to compensate the victims if the judges rejected his defense and declared him responsible for the damages suffered by the plaintiffs. In total, the nine alleged victims are seeking nearly $14 million.

Mr. Rozon’s lawyer did not respond to the email from The Press before publication.

With the collaboration of Louis-Samuel Perron, The Press