The second day of a trial for a Halifax police officer accused of assaulting a man at a homeless shelter and falsifying information in police reports in an attempt to cover it up continued on Tuesday.
Nova Scotia’s police watchdog laid the charges against Const. Laurence Gary Basso earlier this year alleging that the officer, a 14-year veteran of HRP, assaulted a 54-year-old man as he attempted to arrest him at the Metro Turning Point shelter on Barrington Street on Feb. 25.
The cross-examination of the Serious Incident Response Team’s (SIRT) lead investigator, Sgt. Gord Vail, continued on Tuesday with a focus on what led to the police watchdog charging Basso.
The alleged victim was expected to testify on Tuesday but will instead attend court on Dec. 5.
READ MORE: Trial begins for Halifax police officer accused of assaulting man at homeless shelter
New video evidence was shown on Tuesday, containing footage from the police facility where the man was taken after the incident.
The video shows the man entering the facility and sitting on a bench before being taken into a cell for a time.
Video of alleged assault heavily featured
A video of the alleged assault, which showed Basso striking a man and reportedly breaking his nose, continued to be the focus of the trial on Tuesday.
Vail testified that the alleged victim has never watched tape and that the 54-year-old claimed in a statement to SiRT that he does not remember the incident.
The defence replayed the 17-minute video on Tuesday, going over it frame-by-frame, asking a line of questions about the position of the alleged victim’s hands and whether it was possible that the 54-year-old had struck Basso first.
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The video, which had no audio, shows the interactions between Basso and the alleged victim.
Vail testified that he doesn’t believe the man punched Const. Basso based on the video, which showed Basso and the man on Metro Turning Point.
‘Inconsistencies and falsehoods’
Vail testified that he had identified “inconsistencies and falsehoods” in the information Basso provided to SiRT as they investigated the incident.
Those “falsehoods” are what resulted in SiRT’s decision to charge Basso with public mischief and breach of trust.
Basso had offered to take a polygraph test during the course of the investigation but Vail said that SiRT declined the use of the tool, saying that Basso had enough opportunity to disclose the full truth during their investigation.
The court heard on Monday that the alleged victim regularly stays at the Metro Turning Point shelter and suffers from alcohol addiction.
The court was also shown photos of the man after the alleged assault, focusing on his face and left eye.
According to court testimony, the alleged victim was known to police before the alleged assault, with the man having had multiple convictions since 1989.
Testimony on Monday also revealed that he was initially charged with assaulting a police officer in connection to the alleged assault, although that charge was eventually dropped.
The trial is scheduled to continue on Dec. 5 and Dec. 6.
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