A Winnipeg judge has thrown out an assault charge after determining police got the gender and name of the alleged victim wrong in an official court document.

Patricia Scott filed a complaint with police in January 2015 alleging a co-worker physically assaulted her at work.

But when the case was heard in court Sept. 7 and 8, provincial court Judge Brian Corrin noted the information sworn by police indicated the witness was a man by the name of Pat Scott.

A Winnipeg judge has thrown out an assault charge after determining police got the gender and name of the alleged victim wrong in an official court document. 0:23

"I went into the courtroom and I did my swearing on the bible and I gave my name and the judge said, 'Who are you, are you, the complainant?' And I said yes," Scott told CBC News.

"He thought Pat Scott was a male name. He was expecting a man and not me, and then he pretty much stopped everything right there.

"I was stunned. Just stunned," Scott said.

In court, the judge pointed out the error to both the defence and Crown.

"The complainant is actually a female and her name is Patricia Scott, not Pat," Corrin said. "She also has a middle name. The Crown, if it had read the information in a timely fashion, could have had the police relay the information correcting all the errors."

"It's a very unusual situation that doesn't arise very often in the context of trials," Corrin said.

The man accused in this case was facing a charge of assault causing bodily harm arising from an alleged workplace incident that happened in an office of the East Side Road Authority, a provincial agency recently dismantled by the provincial government.

Scott was a finance manager at the East Side Road Authority when she blew the whistle on what she saw as financial irregularities at the agency in March 2015, filing a complaint with the provincial ombudsman.

In an interview last June with the CBC News I-Team, she said the incident that led to her allegations of assault in the workplace were not related to the whistleblower complaint.

Error discovered too late

Defence lawyer Martin Glazer told CBC News he was instructed by his client not to comment on the assault case.

In court he had argued it was too late for the Crown to amend the document or lay a new charge.

Crown attorney Valerie Hébert argued in court that communications back and forth with the defence prior to the trial consistently referred to a female complainant, using the pronouns "she" and "her".

"It was abundantly clear at the outset by both parties that Ms. Scott was female and this does not mislead [the accused]," Hébert told court.

"I'm not sure where the injustice would lie," Hébert said. "[the accused] can't possibly be arguing he wasn't given fair notice of the charge."

The judge questioned whether the person who filed the paperwork for the police was an officer with any knowledge of the investigation.

"The defence argues that the mistakes previously referenced are evidence in and of themselves that the informant had neither personal knowledge nor reasonable grounds to believe that his client committed this offence," Judge Corrin said. "I concur."

Judge: police didn't have handle on basics

He said the errors were "not reflective of a simple typographical error or something of that sort."

Patricia Scott alleged she was assaulted at work but a judge has thrown out the case because police got her name and gender wrong on a court document. (CBC) Corrin said the police agent "clearly didn't even have a handle on the basics — the full name and gender of the complainant. Accordingly, because I strongly suspect he or she didn't actually read the investigative reports, I quash the information as requested by the defence."

A spokesperson for Manitoba Justice said the decision is under review by the Crown.

After waiting more than a year for the assault case to go to trial, Scott said she hopes the case can be revived.

"My intent is to see if there is anything more that can be done," Scott told CBC. "I'm really discouraged."

A police spokesperson said WPS could not comment because it hasn't reviewed the judge's decision yet.

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