Doctor’s sex assault trial adjourned for third consecutive day after court hears key evidence likely unrecoverable

A rural Manitoba doctor’s trial on nearly two dozen sexual assault charges was adjourned for the third consecutive day Wednesday after court heard key notebooks from the lead police investigator appear to be unrecoverable.

The judge-only trial, scheduled for four weeks, will reconvene in front of Court of King’s Bench Justice Anne Turner Friday afternoon, when the Crown and defence lawyers are expected to discuss the plan going forward.

Dr. Arcel Bissonnette is charged with 22 counts of sexual assault for alleged offences against several female patients when he worked in Ste. Anne, a town southeast of Winnipeg, between 2004 and 2017.

He was initially charged in 2020 with six counts before additional complainants stepped forward and he was charged with 16 more offences in 2021. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba barred him from practising medicine when he was first charged.

Bissonnette’s lawyers Marty Minuk, Josh Weinstein and Lisa LaBossiere said they are concerned about missing documents from the police probe, which began in 2017, led by then-constable Jacqueline Lawford, who has since left the Sainte-Anne Police Department.

“I think what is very clear is that the notes of officer Lawford, they are gone. They’re gone, and it does not appear that they will ever be recovered,” LaBossiere told Turner Wednesday.

The defence team learned of the “lost” or possibly “destroyed” notebooks on Dec. 21, she said.

Prosecutor Paul Girdlestone said the Crown began asking the police department about the notes on Dec. 12.

The defence team received 13 responses by email — up to 10 p.m. — from the police department Tuesday via Girdlestone, including further evidence disclosure.

LaBossiere requested an adjournment until Monday.

“There’s no question the defence requires further time,” she told court.

“We not only need time to review what was sent, we need time to formulate what it is the defence is going to do from here on out.”

Lawford, who briefly testified without cross-examination when the trial got underway Monday, led the investigation from August 2017 to April 2019, before she was seconded to work with another police department, which later led to a permanent job offer.

The defence previously had received disclosures of evidence only from October 2018 until April 2019, LaBossiere told court Monday.

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Lawford testified Monday that all of her notebooks on the investigation were put into a filing cabinet at the police department, but staff have not been able to find them.

LaBossiere said Wednesday that the police department has known about the missing notebooks “for years.”

Lawford also deleted a Town of Ste. Anne employee computer user account and an email account one night. One was retrieved, but LaBossiere said relevant information could be on the other.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera reports for the city desk, with a particular focus on crime and justice.

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