Montsion's lawyers to call former Crown witness in manslaughter trial

In an unusual move, Const. Daniel Montsion's lawyers plan to call at least one Crown witness that has been dropped from the prosecution's list.

On Tuesday, the defence gave notice that they will likely call Sarah Clements, awoman who witnessed the altercation between the Ottawa police officer and Abdirahman Abdi on July 24, 2016.

Montsion is on trial for manslaughter, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon in connection to Abdi's death.

The witness even has a written account of what she saw, because she texted her friend shortly after it happened, defence counsel Solomon Friedman said in court this week.

She was notably left off the Crown's new, shorter list of witnesses, which was released on Monday.

"I understood they would be calling her," Friedman told the judge Tuesday, after he discovered she was not on the Crown's new list.

The Crown initially planned to call 31 witnesses in the case but the new list only has 24 names.

Crown will not call more police

The Crown removed twoexperts in the use of force training for Ottawa police, raising questions about how they plan to address the questions about the gloves Montsion was wearing during the arrest.

The gloves with reinforced knuckles are at the centre of Montsion's assault with a weapon charge.

A use-of-force expert testified last week that the gloves are not on the provincially approved list of weapons issued to Ontario police officers, but have heard little other evidence.

The Crown is trying to save court time by narrowing down the number of witnesses, attorney Roger Shallow said Monday. The trial has suffered long delays, including a nearly three-week adjournment.

But the defence is now planning to call at least one of them, and also plans to question SIUinvestigators.

They will be called to testify about the contentand creation of the surveillance video at 55 Hilda St., which the defence claims the investigator mishandled.

The video is now at the centre of Montsion's application under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to have the case dismissed or the video evidence removed from consideration.

WARNING: Video contains graphic content

6 years ago

Duration 2:02

A bystander video showing the arrest of Abdirahman Abdi in 2016. The defence team of Const. Daniel Montsion, who was charged in Abdi's death, has asked for the charges to be dismissed, or to have key video evidence thrown out.