Lawyer’s request for lengthy assault trial delay refused by local judge

By Peggy Revell on December 1, 2017.

It was almost deja-vu Wednesday as a Medicine Hat judge refused to allow a brief trial for assault to be pushed off for more than a year at the request of Calgary defence counsel.

“This is ridiculous,” said Judge Ted Fisher, as a local agent appeared in court on behalf of the lawyer representing Aaron Raj Anand-Ford for two assault charges, wanting the trial date set for December 2018.

Anand-Ford remains in custody at the Medicine Hat Remand Centre due to second-degree murder charges stemming from the death of 24-year-old Dustin Hewer on Nov. 5, 2016. The two assault charges date back to May 29, 2016.

This latest appearance is a repeat of the one made Oct. 25, when the agent said they had been given instructions to either request an adjournment, or if the next step was required, to set down a trial date for Aug. 18.

But both Crown and judge balked at putting off to August what’s expected to just be a 180-minute trial, especially with numerous earlier dates available.

At that appearance, Fisher called the delay “nonsense,” saying he wanted to see the lawyer’s calendar to prove he couldn’t do the trial until then.

As this August trial date was not secured, it has been booked up with other cases. The next date that Anand Ford’s lawyer said they would be available is in December 2018.

The judge instead adjourned the matter to December of this year to speak to, and hopefully set an earlier date.

Anand-Ford has yet to go to trial on the murder charge, while his co-accused pled guilty to manslaughter earlier this year.

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