Accused says woman showed no signs of intoxication and asked to sleep with him.
But Grant Lee Cichacki said the woman showed no signs of intoxication and asked to sleep with him after their evening out with friends ended at his apartment.
Cichacki, 43, told defence lawyer Alain Hepner the woman came to his room in the early morning hours of Dec. 28, 2022, after he had provided pillows and blankets for her and two men that had been out with them.
“I went to my room and I went to bed,” Cichacki said.
He said he was dozing off about 15 to 20 minutes later when he heard a knock at his door.
“She said she was upset and she wanted to know if she could spend the night in my room,” said Cichacki, who had ownership in four bars but has been forced to sell his shares because of criminal allegations against him.
The woman, whose identity is protected, stripped to her underwear, got in his bed and cuddled.
“I cuddled her back,” he said.
They then became more amorous and eventually had sexual intercourse.
But the woman, who worked in one of Cichacki’s clubs at the time, said she has no recollection of events playing out the way he said they did.
The then-18-year-old said she had a shot at their bar before a group of them went to Cowboys Casino, where Cichacki bought her a cranberry and vodka drink.
“I had a couple of sips of that and I don’t remember what happened afterwards,” she told the Calgary Court of Justice hearing.
She told Crown prosecutor Tara Wells she wasn’t certain where the drink came from.
“Grant just passed me the drink,” she said.
Her next recollection was being at a different club, Boudoir Rouge, having an argument over the phone with her roommate.
“I was sitting next to an ATM and I remember crying because (my roommate) was upset that I didn’t come home with the car,” she said.
“Grant came over and got me up and we were walking back to our table, and that’s the only thing I remember from there,” the woman told Wells.
“The next thing I remember is waking up in Grant’s bed.”
Before calling his client, Hepner asked Justice Heather Lamoureux to order a directed verdict of not guilty, arguing the complainant never said she didn’t consent to sex with his client.
But Lamoureux found there was some evidence to weigh in determining if Cichacki is guilty.
The trial continues Tuesday.