A Vancouver bar owner convicted of sexual assault has been sentenced to a year in jail.
Vancouver's Brickhouse Late Nite Bistro and Bar, called Brickhouse at Hogan’s Alley in a B.C. Supreme Court petition, was the scene of a series of events that led to owner Chih Hwa Leo Chow's conviction.
On Dec. 23, Vancouver Provincial Court Judge Gregory Rideout convicted Chow, 67, of sexually assaulting a 21-year-old at the Brickhouse Late Nite Bistro and Bar in 2022 when she and her mother, a friend of Chow’s, stopped by.
Chow testified that the woman had initiated sexual activity which he had believed to be consensual.
Rideout found the woman did not consent to having sexual contact with him.
The judge said when the woman confronted Chow and said he had sexually assaulted her and she was a lesbian, he testified he felt “stunned, anger, hurt and wow.” He said he felt betrayed as he had treated the woman “properly.”
“I find the only betrayal committed that evening at the Brickhouse was the accused’s violation of the physical integrity and sexual autonomy of the complainant,” Rideout said. “By no standard was she ever treated ‘properly’ by the accused.”
Rideout concluded the daughter did not consent to the sexual behaviour.
“I find the accused’s evidence of the sexual encounters with the complaint to be bizarre,” Rideout said in his Dec. 23 decision.
On May 16, Rideout sentenced Chow to a year in jail.
The judge recommended Chow serve his sentence at Ford Mountain Correctional Centre near Chilliwack, a men’s multi-level security centre for offenders with a mental disorder and sexual offenders.
Rideout also ordered that Chow be put on the national sex offender registry for 10 years and be subject to a 10-year firearms ban.
Chow has the right to appeal those orders.
Chow has said he's appealing his conviction, information that came in a B.C. Supreme Court petition filed May 12. There, Chow is challenging government orders suspending his operations and cancelling his liquor licence.
The petition asks the court to quash an April 29 Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch (LCRB) decision cancelling Chow’s licence and refusing a transfer. It also seeks declarations that order was unreasonable and procedurally unfair.
As a result of a court information sworn Feb. 14, Chow now faces further charges of sexual assault, unlawful confinement and administering or causing a person to take a drug. Those offences allegedly took place Jan. 6-7, 2024. They have not been proven in court.
