The former president of an area chamber of commerce and a top aide to Liberal Senator Art Eggleton has been charged in connection with a sexual assault investigation in Toronto.
Robert Meinzer, 38, now of Ottawa, whose mother served as a King Township councillor and whose father reportedly ran for the mayor’s office in Toronto, was arrested in Toronto Monday.
The charges have not been proven in court.
Sources have confirmed Mr. Meinzer served as former president of the now-defunct Nobleton Chamber of Commerce. That chamber has since merged into the King Township Chamber of Commerce.
Toronto Police launched an investigation into an allegation of a sexual assault on a woman earlier this month, according to a news release issued Wednesday.
Mr. Eggleton has publicly stated Mr. Meinzer was suspended from his job without pay.
“It’s a shocking allegation,” Mr. Eggleton said. “But he has a right to due process of law. It’s an allegation, not a conviction at this point.”
Mr. Meinzer’s neighbour, Debra Martens, said he usually lives alone.
But this summer, he began living with an intern in her 20s who works for the government, she said.
Mr. Meinzer, a 1989 graduate of St. Andrew’s College in Aurora is charged with break and enter with intent, assault, forcible confinement, sexual assault, two counts of assault with a weapon, suffocation, anal intercourse and extortion.
He is scheduled to appear at the Old City Hall courts in Toronto on Sept. 10.
If you have any information, call police at 416-808-1404 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS.
— with files from Torstar news network