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Shooting victim testifies at retrial of Mountie Pompeo

Monday marked the start of the second week of a former North Cowichan/Duncan Mountie’s retrial
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William Gillespie

Monday marked the start of the second week of a former North Cowichan/Duncan Mountie’s retrial in the shooting of an unarmed Chemainus man years ago.

Const. David Pompeo was convicted in February 2013 of aggravated assault in the shooting of William Arthur Gillespie during a traffic stop in September 2009.

In December 2013, Pompeo was sentenced to two years probation and 240 hours of community service. The Crown had been seeking two years in jail.

In August 2014, Pompeo won an appeal for a new trial.

That retrial kicked off last week and went four days beginning with a voir dire, or a trial within a trial, to assess the admissibility of particular evidence and then continuing on with witnesses.

While the witnesses that were called had also appeared in the first trial, different questions and evidence, including photos of the scene not introduced the first time around, led to new testimony for Justice Lisa Mrozinsk to consider.

Included in the first week of testimony was also that of Gillespie himself.

He returned to the stand for a third day on Monday morning and was briefly questioned by Crown attorney Oleh S. Kuzma before cross-examination by Pompeo’s lawyer Ravi Hira commenced.

Outside of the courtroom Gillespie said he wished the case would be done once and for all.

He’s endured one criminal trial already and a complete civil trial as well.

“I’m hoping not to have to go through anymore police harassment,” he said. Gillespie also said he’s suffering from post traumatic stress disorder as a result of that night in 2009 and his other interactions with police over the years.

“PTSD has been really hard on my family,” Gillespie said. “It’s caused a lot of family problems with my marriage.”

The new trial is expected to wrap up in mid December.



Sarah Simpson

About the Author: Sarah Simpson

I started my time with Black Press Media as an intern, before joining the Citizen in the summer of 2004.
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