Assault charge dropped against former homeless advocate
Charges of assaulting a young street person with a weapon were dropped Tuesday against former homeless foundation board member Robin Wortman, after his accuser testified in court.
Crown prosecutor Shane Parker told provincial court Judge Heather Lamoureux he would not be proceeding on the March 11 charge after hearing the former homeless man’s evidence. “It is clear from his evidence there is a greater context,” Parker said.
He said because of the transient lifestyle of the witness, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, he never gave a statement to police.
As a result, Parker said he only heard the witness’s version of events as he testified on Tuesday.
The prosecutor said based on the testimony, Wortman had a strong argument he was acting in selfdefence.
The then-member of the board of directors of the Calgary Homeless Foundation was relieved of his position after he was charged with assaulting the complainant with a knife, as well as sexual assault of an underage male. His trial on the sex charge continues.
Parker said the assault charge was laid based on surveillance video from outside Wortman’s apartment suite showing him brandishing a weapon toward the 19-year-old witness.
But the witness told court he had been badgering Wortman to allow him and three friends to stay at his apartment that night.
He spent up to 90 minutes sending Wortman, 62, Facebook messages asking him to let him into his apartment. He also buzzed the accused’s suite several times asking to be allowed in.
When Wortman came to the secure door, he told the man he wasn’t welcome because the accused didn’t want one of his friends to come in.
The group gained access to the lobby of the apartment and after about an hour the witness went up to the eighth floor of the 16th Avenue S.W. building.
He repeatedly knocked on Wortman’s door, he said, until the accused emerged with a knife.
“I knocked on the door and he told me to go away,” the man testified. The witness said he was taunting Wortman from outside his apartment, asking the homeless foundation member why he wouldn’t help him.