Defence lawyer Harry Black suggested Adam Nobody wore gloves to the June 2010 demonstration at Queen’s Park despite the hot, muggy weather so he could toss stones at police or make mischief with bio-hazardous materials.
“No,” responded Nobody.
Andalib-Goortani, 33, has pleaded not guilty to assaulting Nobody with a weapon, his nightstick. The officer is not alleged to have caused the facial injuries Mr. Nobody suffered: a broken nose and shattered cheekbone.
Under Black’s cross-examination, Nobody first denied wearing gloves to the Saturday, June 26 anti-G20 demonstration, but changed his mind when Black showed photos.
“Those are my cycling gloves,” conceded the 30-year-old stagehand, who had biked to the protest.
Black noted that scientists have determined a red water bottle Nobody brought to the protest, which he testified contained whiskey and water, also contained trace amounts of the solvent toluene and that the contents were flammable.
He asked if Nobody planned to make a Molotov cocktail.
“Absolutely not,” Nobody replied.
Black accused Nobody of trying to foment protest. “You were confronting a line of police,” Black said.
Over a period of four hours, Black went on, Nobody was trying to encourage demonstrators to resist police requests to disperse. “You were attempting to rile up the crowd,” Black went on.
Nobody denied doing anything more than shouting at riot-gear wearing officers for charging peaceful protesters.
Black suggested Nobody is motivated to perform well when testifying against Andalib-Goortani by a $14.2 million civil lawsuit launched by him and his family against police.
“No, that’s not in my head,” Nobody replied. “It will help the justice system a lot if I put in a good performance today.”
Nobody has testified that he arrived at the Legislature on the afternoon of Saturday, June 26, 2010, carrying a knapsack and the water bottle.
He testified he came to the protest out of curiosity and bought some Bristol board on which he began to write an ironic message in bubble letters referring to Tori Spelling’s character Donna Martin in Beverly Hills 90210. The message was: LET DONNA GRADUATE.
He denied Black’s suggestion that what he really wrote was a crude anti-police slogan.
At 5:49 p.m., police used a Long Range Acoustic Device — a very loud hailer — to warn the crowd to disperse, according to agreed facts.
Nobody has testified he never heard the hailer and thinks he was arrested before the warning was given.
But Black showed a CTV live newscast broadcast after 6 p.m. that day in which Nobody can be seen in the background.
John Bridge, a web designer who 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. Nobody has testified that he didn’t resist arrest, and kept screaming, “I’m not resisting.”
Nobody’s cross-examination continues in front of provincial court Justice Louise Botham on Friday.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Peter Small
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