The former co-owner of a downtown music venue that closed indefinitely amid controversy over allegations of harassment has been charged with sexual assault.
CTV News has learned James Leder, 37, has been charged with sexual assault.
On November 19, 2017, Brittany Lyne Rudyck posted on Facebook, accusing one of the owners of the venue of groping her while drunk. The allegations in her post dated back to March of that year.
The alleged incident happened March 10, Rudyck, the former social media manager of The Needle claims she was drunkenly groped by Leder.
Rudyk told CTV News that after the alleged incident she was uncomfortable going to work. She quit her position in November and filed a complaint with the Edmonton Police Service not long after.
In an interview Friday with CTV News, Rudyck recalled a moment in the months after she went public with the allegation when she says she saw Leder while she was leaving a grocery store.
“It was one of the most intense moments, I’ll never forget it as long as I live because we made eye contact” Rudyk says. “It was like one of those movie moments where like its slow motion and you have eye contact with this person the whole time. As soon as we passed and we no longer had eye contact I just started bawling, I had to park my car because it was just shocking.”
CTV News did attempt to reach James Leder but had no success. None of the allegations has been proven in a court of law.
Leder is scheduled to appear in court on April 24.
