Arraignment day in St. John’s
Court hears not guilty pleas to attempted murder, drugs, child-sex crimes
Monday was arraignment day in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in St. John’s, and saw a handful men enter not guilty pleas to unrelated charges.
Masih Allahbakhshi will go to trial in September 2019 before a judge alone, having pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of attempted murder.
Allahbakhshi, an engineering PHD student, is accused of trying to kill a fellow Memorial University student by hurling him over a cliff while the pair was walking on Signal Hill in April of last year. The two men fell about 20 feet, and the victim received minor injuries. Allahbakhshi was arrested shortly afterward and ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment, which deemed him fit to stand trial.
He was subsequently released on bail with a number of conditions, but was back before a judge months later, charged with attempting to poison the same man four days before the Signal Hill event by putting prescription medication in his food.
Allahbakhshi was granted bail again and given the same conditions as previously ordered, with an extra order banning him from working or volunteering in any capacity requiring him to prepare or serve food or drink to others. That matter is still making its way before the courts.
A 62-year-old man — who cannot be named due to a publication ban intended to protect the identity of the young victim in the case — will face a jury over the course of a week in September 2019.
The Paradise resident is facing 10 charges, all related to the same female child: four counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference, making sexually explicit material available to a child under 16, exposing his genitals to a child under 16 and committing an indecent act in public. The alleged incidents are said to have occurred in four different communities in the province between 2013 and 2016.
Two alleged members of the Vikings motorcycle club also appeared before the judge, though it wasn’t the first time either of them had been arraigned.
Wayne Johnson, who was arraigned last spring and is already set to go to trial in January on drug charges, pleaded not guilty to additional charges of conspiring to traffic cocaine and cannabis resin. He was committed last month to stand trial, and proceedings will happen over six days beginning May 26, 2019.
James Curran had already pleaded not guilty to participating in the activities of a criminal organization, drug trafficking and possession, but changed his mind and elected a jury trial Monday instead of a trial before a judge alone. He’ll go to trial alongside Johnson and Vincent Leonard Sr. over five weeks beginning Jan. 15.
The three men were arrested last year as part of Project Bombard, a joint RNC/RCMP investigation into the activities of the Vikings, which saw dozens of charges laid against 12 men, along with a seizure of a large number of items, including drugs, cash, weapons, jewelry, photos, clothing and vehicles.