Regina vs Brian Douglas Louie on two criminal charges relating to a May 2012 incident on the Osoyoos Indian Reserve has been adjourned at the conclusion of the Crown’s case which involved 10 witnesses over a three day period this week. The two charges – aggravated sexual assault and assault causing bodily harm.
Defense lawyer James Pennington will give a defense presentation next Thursday at 9:30 a.m.
Today’s proceedings started with Judge Meg Shaw asking the defense to speak to the accused before the proceedings began – due to the number of outbursts that were allowed in the first two days. Judge Shaw clearly indicated that she did not want this behavior to continue.
Two police officers explained what they did on the day in question, Sunday May 20th after being called into action at 7am. The police took the victim to the hospital and other officers looked for Louie but he surrendered to police later.
Registered Nurse, Martha Towers was accepted as an expert witness and told the court she measured and noted every bruise, abrasion or laceration on the victim’s body with many injuries defensive in nature and others consistent with blunt force in a beating. Those areas of her head included eye and ear injuries that required further investigation of possible concussion.
Towers said this was the first time she had testified in a court hearing as she is a Patient Care Coordinator at Penticton Hospital and was called into action as a trauma nurse the morning the victim was transferred by ambulance from Oliver. Towers told the court that the victim’s injuries to her genital area would have been extremely painful because it is vascular in nature with many nerve endings.
57 year Greg Baptiste testified that he opened his door to Louie on that Sunday morning and allowed him in – as he had done in the past. Baptiste said Louie didn’t say much other than “he had screwed up”. Baptiste says Louie appeared drunk. Louie stayed only about 20 minutes smoking continually before he jumped out of a bedroom window when the RCMP arrived to locate him.