TORONTO - Ontario's top court isn't buying an argument that a man's exposed penis was, perhaps, just a wooden key chain.
Roger Potvin was convicted for committing an indecent act in a public place after a judge found he exposed himself in Ottawa to a woman who came to his car to offer him directions in July 2006.
At trial, the judge dismissed a defence argument that the woman may have, in the dark, mistaken the key chain for Potvin's penis -- which the woman inadvertently poked when Potvin removed a map from his lap.
Today, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the conviction for which Potvin was handed a nine-month jail term and three years' probation in 2007.
The court found the woman was "clear and precise" in her testimony and that, during the original trial, the woman touched the key chain and said it did not feel like what she had touched that night.
The wooden key chain hypothesis, the Appeal Court found, was "entirely speculative and unsupported by any evidence."
In addition to the indecent act conviction, Potvin was also convicted of breach of recognizance and two counts of breach of probation.
At his trial, Potvin presented a vastly different version of events. He testified that he pulled over to examine a piece of paper and the woman, of her own accord, tapped on his window and asked if he was lost.
When he rolled down the window, the woman grabbed the paper and a tug of war ensued, with the woman accusing him of being a thief, Potvin told the court.
The trial judge ruled that Potvin's version of events made "absolutely no sense" and were "fanciful at best."
