A Grand Forks man accused of assaulting another man at the end of a KIJHL playoff game at the Beaver Valley Arena following a confrontation over an airhorn has been acquitted.
Glenn Holbrook, 57 at the time of the incident, was found not guilty today by provincial court judge Rob Brown. Holbrook had been charged with aggravated assault against Fruitvale’s Kevin Doherty, 47 at the time, after both men ended up at the bottom of a set of concrete stairs in March 2025.
Brown said Holbrook was direct in his testimony and provided answers without hesitation that had the “ring of truth and air of reality.”
“I find it is reasonably possible that the events unfolded exactly as described by him: he reached out and grabbed the complainant when he lost his balance in a reflex action and unintentionally pulled the complainant downward, resulting in both of them falling down the stairs,” Brown said in his ruling. “That reasonable possibility cannot be ruled out by me.”
Holbrook was also accused of stomping on Doherty’s legs afterward, but Brown said he was not satisfied that had actually occurred, given the one witness who said he saw it occur admitted he was uncertain.
Doherty testified that he was thrown down the stairs “like a rag doll” after he approached Holbrook about his use of an airhorn at the end of the game. Exactly what Doherty said to Holbrook was disputed, as was whether he was calm or angry at the time.
Doherty said he was left with a dislocated knee and severed tendons and spent several days in the hospital. At the time of his testimony, nearly a year after the incident, he said he had not fully recovered. He denied exaggerating his injuries.
RDKB facilities manager Mark Daines told Vista Radio the KIJHL has since banned airhorns of the kind used that night from its games.
