September date possible for opening of defence in Abdi trial
Const. Daniel Montsion’s defence team could present its first evidence and call its opening witnesses in the Ottawa officer’s manslaughter and assault trial as early as Sept. 9.
Montsion has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon in the July 24, 2016, fatal arrest of Abdirahman Abdi outside the Somalian-Canadian man’s home at 55 Hilda St.
The law firm of Edelson & Friedman confirmed an additional week of trial dates in a hearing Friday. The high-profile trial will resume in September with three weeks of evidence.
Prosecutors Philip Perlmutter and Roger Shallow earlier told court they had completed the bulk of the Crown’s case against Montsion and are not expected to call any additional witnesses.
Ontario Court Justice Robert Kelly has already heard Crown evidence from civilian witnesses, paramedics, police and forensics experts over 58 days of testimony since the trial began Feb. 4, with the matter extending far beyond the 12 weeks it was originally scheduled to span.
In a July hearing, the defence team of Michael Edelson and Solomon Friedman formally withdrew its application to have contentious video evidence tossed. Friedman told the judge the defence would no longer contest the CCTV video from the Hilda Street building lobby that captured the arrest, partly in an effort to avoid further trial delays.
The accuracy of various versions of the video tendered by the Crown, and its admissibility as evidence, had been a point of contention since the trial’s earliest days.
But the judge is still expected to hear arguments on how much he should rely on the video’s contents.
The defence is expected to pause its case for a separate hearing in October, when it will resume questioning its video expert, Grant Fredericks, whose earlier testimony highlighting the various issues with the video data was put on hold while the parties worked out scheduling issues.
The Crown has notified the judge it may seek to recall its own video expert, Ed Segeren, following that evidence.