Montsion trial adjourns until closing arguments in April
With the evidence now complete following three days of hearings Wednesday, Const. Daniel Montsion’s long-running manslaughter and assault trial will now wait another six months before it is any closer to a resolution.
Ontario Court Justice Robert Kelly adjourned the trial until late April 2020, when prosecutors Philip Perlmutter and Roger Shallow are set to begin the Crown’s closing arguments, followed by Montsion’s defence team of Michael Edelson and Solomon Friedman.
“That is the evidence,” Perlmutter declared at the conclusion of three days of hearings with forensic video analyst Grant Fredericks, who was called back to the stand after first testifying in June.
Montsion was charged in March 2017 with manslaughter, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon in the fatal arrest of Abdirahman Abdi on July 24, 2016, and the officer’s trial heard 70 days of testimony with more than 180 exhibits entered as trial evidence since its opening Feb. 4.
Fredericks — a former police officer who works privately as a prominent forensic video analyst and trains agents with the FBI National Academy — was qualified by the court this week as an expert witness for the defence in one of several concessions made by the Crown before trial adjourned.
His testimony was accompanied by a detailed analysis of CCTV video extracted from the 55 Hilda St. lobby capturing Abdi’s fatal arrest, with Fredericks concluding the key video evidence is tainted by “variable timing” that “prevents any player from accurately playing back the video in a manner that accurately reproduces the motion ...”
As a result, Fredericks said the evidence “is not fit for the purpose of accurately assessing movement, timing or force” captured in the clip shown to court.
The judge was asked to consider how much he should rely on the video when weighing the evidence before him.
The trial heard days of evidence and testimony about issues investigators encountered in extracting, processing and handling the video footage. Special Investigations Unit agents made a copy of the video at the scene that day, but did not seize the digital video recorder from the building until three years later, when the trial was well underway and the original, uncorrupted data long since overwritten.
As part of “housekeeping” matters Wednesday, the Crown asked that the DVR, which was not tendered as trial evidence, be finally returned to 55 Hilda St.
The Crown also conceded several key points prosecutors had raised over Ottawa Police Service receipts showing the reinforced gloves Montsion wore during the arrest were procured by police and issued to his DART unit (Direct Action Response Team).
An agreed statement of facts was finally reached Wednesday, weeks after prosecutors initially raised questions over the receipts.
The receipts were tendered as defence evidence in early September, when the defence team completed its case in a single day of testimony and documentary evidence, including the receipts.
The Crown agreed the evidence contains an official Ottawa Police Service credit card statement, and that the credit card of Montsion’s supervising officer, Staff Sgt. Sandra Sparling, was used to purchase the police-issue Oakley assault gloves.
The handwritten notation that appears to indicate “Eyeware” (sic) turned out to be less a controversy than a clerical error, as the Crown conceded the March 12, 2015, receipt is indeed for an Oakley glove purchase, and “not eyewear as endorsed in handwriting.”
Before adjourning Wednesday, Crown and defence lawyers met in the judge’s chambers to discuss “a more ambitious” schedule for the next phase of trial, but Kelly said “it is simply not realistic in this case.”
The Crown’s closing arguments are due before the judge in writing by Dec. 31, and the defence written submissions are due Feb. 25, 2020. Any reply submissions are to be filed by April 15, 2020, and Kelly said those should not contain any “repetition or raise new issues.”
Kelly said he trusts both parties “will remain focused and will not waste pages or words” in their closing arguments. Court will hear those arguments when the trial reconvenes April 27, 2020 for three days. ahelmer@postmedia.com Twitter.com/ helmera