Accused interrupts trial with obscene gesture

A sexual assault trial was briefly disrupted Wednesday afternoon when the accused appeared to give the middle finger to a witness as she told court that he’d drugged and raped her.

Merik Stanley Bereznicki, 49, was in the prisoner’s box as the woman testified that he’d sexually assaulted her in his home. As she testified about a vengeful note she’d left on his doorstep, her tone of voice suddenly became surprised.

“Did you just flip me off?” she asked.

Court was briefly adjourned as an individual in the courtroom confirmed they’d also seen Bereznicki make an obscene gesture. Court heard that the incident will be addressed when trial resumes Thursday.

The woman, who cannot be identified, told court she first met Bereznicki in January 2009 when she responded to a job advertisement in a newspaper. She knew him as Marco.

The woman met him at a small-engine repair shop and he asked her to do some trial work such as answering phones. At one point in the day, she testified, Bereznicki left the shop, then phoned and asked her to hide upstairs because his girlfriend had driven by and was jealous.

“After that phone call, I ended up going home,” she said. “I didn’t want the job.”

The two remained in contact and later that months he accepted an invitation to his Kingsway-area home. She told a friend about her plans.

“I don’t usually go to a stranger’s house in the middle of the night, so I let a friend know,” she said. “I was very clear with him about my lack of interest. I told him there would be nothing sexual between us.”

Later, the woman asked for a glass of water and left it unattended on Bereznicki’s counter. When she drank from it, she said, she immediately felt something was wrong. It tasted salty and made her feel drunk, she said. She confronted him about it.

“He said, ‘I didn’t drug you. It’s all in your head,’ ” she remembered.

Det. David Pelech, the lead investigator in the case, previously told court that blood and urine samples taken from the woman in the hours after her assault showed nothing unusual.

While she was confused and disoriented, she testified, Bereznicki had sex with her as she repeatedly told him she didn’t want to.

“He just ignored me, basically,” she said.

Days later, the woman told court she left a note on his doorstep that called him a “pig” and mentioned his daughter. At that point, Bereznicki made the gesture from the prisoner’s box.

Bereznicki has pleaded not guilty to three charges of sexual assault. At the time of his arrest in May 2011, police claimed Bereznicki lured women using job ads for an administrative assistant.

Three women between the ages of 18 to 22 years old have accused Bereznicki of sexual assault between 2009 and 2011. The other two alleged victims have not testified.