Jacob Hoggard abandons bid to challenge 2022 conviction before Supreme Court

Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard is abandoning his bid to appeal his 2022 sexual assault conviction before Canada’s top court.

The Supreme Court of Canada website shows the former Hedley frontman discontinued his application for leave to appeal. Hoggard’s lawyer, Megan Savard, told CBC News in an email the move came “before [last week’s] Haileybury jury returned a verdict.”

That’s the day Hoggard, 40, was found not guilty of sexual assault in a separate, unrelated case in northeastern Ontario.

In the 2022 case, a Toronto jury found Hoggard guilty of sexual assault causing bodily harm against an Ottawa woman, but not guilty of the same charge and of sexual interference in relation to a teenage fan.

Hoggard started serving his five-year sentence after the Court of Appeal for Ontario upheld his conviction in August.

The singer turned to the Supreme Court in early September, and the Appeal Court rejected his request for bail pending the outcome of his application to the Supreme Court.