Toronto police Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani has pleaded not guilty to assaulting Nobody with a weapon, his police baton.
Andalib-Goortani, the defence’s first witness, testified Monday that Nobody was resisting arrest and that he was doing as he was trained when he struck and jabbed the protester with his baton to get him under control so he could be arrested. Nobody, in his testimony last week, denied resisting arrest.
On Tuesday morning, defence lawyer Harry Black called Sgt. Jeff Alderdice to the stand. Alderdice was working with the public order unit on Saturday, June 26, 2010, and was tasked with supervising six constables.
Just after 12:30 p.m., Alderdice says, he heard that members of a large, violent crowd at the south end of Queen’s Park were throwing projectiles at police officers. His team rushed to the scene.
When he got there, he says he saw rocks, bottles and pieces of asphalt being used as projectiles, and said he was hit by a golf ball in the upper chest and neck area.
“We knew right off the bat this was not a peaceful protest. This was a very tumultuous affair,” Alderdice said, estimating about 500 people were there.
People were bent on causing property damage and injuring his officers, he said, calling it “lawlessness.”
One person in particular was very close to the front lines. He was “constantly taunting officers, approaching them, using profanity and acting in an aggressive manner.” But he says he didn’t see him have any physical interaction with any police officers.
That person — who he later learned was Adam Nobody — was trying to incite the crowd to taunt police, Alderdice testified.
Nobody was designated for arrest. Officers formed an arrest unit, who were supposed to “punch out” — or push out from behind the police line — and try to apprehend him and bring him back behind the police line to be formally arrested.
However, Alderdice said, Nobody ran away when officers tried to arrest him.
“This individual was, in my opinion, highly athletic. He was able to shrug off the officers’ attempts to apprehend him.”
Nobody was carrying a red water bottle and at some point, dropped it behind the police line, Alderdice said. Nobody was anxious to get the bottle back, and Alderdice said he found that suspicious.
When the officer examined the bottle and smelled its contents, he identified it as a flammable material, possibly kerosene.
Crown prosecutor Philip Perlmutter suggested the liquid was actually rye whisky. The bottle, Perlmutter said, wouldn’t have broken easily to expose the liquid if tossed.
Alderdice saw Nobody again later in the day, after he was arrested, he testified.
Perlmutter asked if, when he saw him, he noticed any facial injuries.
“I don’t specifically recall him having injuries, so I didn’t make any note of it,” Alderdice said.
Insp. Brian O’Connor and Const. Adam Hockaday, Toronto police officers who worked with the public order unit on June 26, 2010, also testified that Nobody was acting aggressively toward police that day.
O’Connor, a supervisor that day, said he heard Nobody call police officers Nazis and pigs, and saw him try to wind up the crowd to be unruly.
O’Connor sent a team to arrest him at least three times, but they couldn’t catch him, he said. That’s what made him memorable.
“For a heavy-set man, he was very quick.”
The trial continues Wednesday.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Karissa Donkin
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