“I’m going to suggest to you that you were confronting a line of police on University Ave.,” said defence lawyer Harry Black as he cross-examined Adam Nobody Thursday.
Over a period of four hours, Black went on, Nobody was trying to encourage demonstrators to resist police requests to move back.
“You were encouraging them to … breach the peace. You were attempting to rile up the crowd,” Black suggested.
Nobody denied the allegations.
Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani has pleaded not guilty to the charge of assault with a weapon at the judge-alone trial in provincial court in front of Justice Louise Botham.
Black suggested Nobody is motivated to give a good performance against his client on the witness stand by a $14.2 million civil lawsuit launched by him and his family against police.
“No, that’s not in my head,” he said.
“It will help the justice system a lot if I put in a good performance today,” he said.
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Nobody has testified that he arrived at the legislature on the afternoon of June 26, 2010 carrying a knapsack and a red water bottle. The bottle — which Nobody says belonged to a friend — contained a little whisky and some water.
He said the bottle slipped from his grasp when police first hit him, coming from behind. They would not allow him to retrieve it, ordering him to leave. He did, going to buy beer and returning to the legislature with 12-pack in his knapsack.
He testified Wednesday he was beginning to write out an ironic message on a sheet of Bristol board referring to a character in Beverly Hills 90210. The message was: LET DONNA GRADUATE.
But halfway through, Nobody said he was chased by police, mainly by members of the public order unit, and slammed to the ground, according to videos, during which he was struck repeatedly with blows and batons.
But Black suggested Nobody was chased several times by police and was at the protest much longer than he testified. Nobody denied this.
John Bridge, a web designer who photographed and took videos of the scene, testified Wednesday he saw police form a line across College St., then saw an officer point to the crowd and saw several cops break from the line and chase Nobody, who ran when he noticed he was being chased.
A 19-second video taken by Bridge shows Nobody surrounded and overwhelmed by officers using heavy force, pinning him face down and at one point, kneeing him in the head.
Bridge testified such force was unnecessary because Nobody wasn’t resisting and could barely move under the pile of bodies.
He agreed with defence lawyer Harry Black that the gesturing officer said something like: “There he is, get him!”
Nobody has testified he never resisted arrest, and kept screaming, “I’m not resisting.”
The trial continues Thursday.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Peter Small
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