Mess Media, April 14, 2010
The prosecution of Michael Bryant continues to crawl its way through the justice system he once ran, as his case is once again delayed.
Vancouver-based lawyer Richard Peck reviewed the evidence against the former Ontario Attorney-General and decided a follow-up investigation was necessary.
Toronto lawyer, Mark Sandler, representing the Crown informed provincial court Justice Paul Bentley that police would be re-interviewing witnesses and conducting further forensic tests.
During his time as Ontario attorney general, Bryant was responsible for appointing Ontario judges and prosecutors. Peck has been brought in from Bryant’s home province of British Columbia as prosecutor to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest.
The case was put over until May 25 at 9:30 am.
Bryant’s lawyer, Marie Henein was supposed to indicate in court today how Bryant wishes to be tried. He may choose to be tried in the Ontario Court of Justice in front of a judge only, or in the higher court, the Superior Court in front of a judge alone or a judge and jury.
Bryant, 44, is charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death in relation to the death of cyclist Darcy Allan (AL) Sheppard, 33, after a traffic altercation on August 31, 2009.
Video evidence shows Bryant deliberately rammed his car into Sheppard from behind before attempting to flee the scene of the attack. Sheppard grabbed on to his car and Bryant fled with Sheppard attached.
Witnesses then say that Bryant sped away at about 90 km/hr on the wrong side of the road. He mounted the curb and intentionally drove into obstacles to knock Sheppard off his car. Sheppard died from the resulting multiple collisions.
Michael Bryant once again did not appear in court.
Bryant Watch 
The sad thing about all this is that it points up the problems with increasing population density in Toronto and the rest of Central Canada. Sadly, this will happen again. And so will similar altercations.
I recall the screaming and fighting between neighbours when the garbage strike was on last year, and dumping was going on at the Christie Pits. The acrimony and inter-neighbour viciousness just made me shake my head.
More and more people being crammed into smaller and smaller spaces — what do you expect. It’s mind boggling; here we have a country of 9 million square kilometres, yet we cram 55% of our population on to 2% of our land mass.
And it is just getting worse.
Thank you for covering this trial. It is amazing how little coverage of the trial there is. It was an interesting coincidence that Bandit the half pit bull being put down was on the front page and Michael Bryant coverage was none existent. The CP press release on the internet made me cringe
“Police allege bike courier Darcy Allan Sheppard died after grabbing onto a car in downtown Toronto following an altercation with the driver.”
I suggest Darcy Sheppard allegedly died after being run over and Michael Bryant may have had something to do with it. Let the trial begin.
I doubt that the media or the general (unless hand picked by Bryant’s legal team) public will ever have access to the trial or the cover up surrounding it. Do I sound cynical? You betcha! Have any charges been brought against his partner for leaving the scene of the accident? That is a criminal offense, all the more odious considering that she is an officer of the court and is duty bound to conduct her life in a lawful fashion.Running from the scene of the accident is not very law abiding.
My intention is that the province throws the book at him and that he gets real jail time. That will send a message to motorists, police etc that it is not okay to kill cyclists just because we are in your way or because your level of road rage has reached the atomic level of destruction.
What a load of hogwash these comments are. You people demand a fair trial in Sheppard’s memory but you actually don’t want one. All you’re really interested in is participating in the public lynching of Bryant. I don’t have a horse in this race either way – I’m a pedestrian and see both asshole drivers AND asshole cyclists engage in road rage on a daily basis. And yet for some reason you people seem to be completely willing to absolve Sheppard for his role in what happened. Why?
No one is innocent in this case, but I can tell you one thing: Sheppard was an idiot for grabbing onto the car and forcing a confrontation in the first place. I wouldn’t recommend a 90-lb weakling going after the 250-lb body builder either, no matter what he said to piss you off.
Why? Because Sheppard is six feet under. You probably would not recommend a poor bicycle courier going after a high profile, convertible driving lawyer either, ‘no matter what he said …’ You are pathetic and probably being paid by taxpayers.
“Police ALLEGE bike courier Darcy Allan Sheppard…”.
He DIED, that’s not an allegation! Its a fact.
You wrote:
“Toronto lawyer, Mark Sandler, representing the Crown informed provincial court Justice Paul Bentley that police would be re-interviewing witnesses and conducting further forensic tests.”
This is suspicious, in case they find loopholes or cook the results to suit the defendant. The OPP under Julian Fantino does it by talking to the Union lawyer before they record their actions on paper so that the SIU does not incriminate their actions.
@Miss Bliss:
You maybe right about David’s actions against Goliath, but the arrogant and thoughtless driver of that Goliath acted foolishly and irresponsibly in a typical road rage. The cyclist was not a pestering fly to smack it to death, was a human being. What any
right thinking person would have done was to stop the car, apologise for bumping him and end the frigging collusion in a more agreeable fashion.
Lela: “What any
right thinking person would have done was to stop the car, apologise for bumping him and end the frigging collusion in a more agreeable fashion.”
LOL! What you meant to write was: “What Bryant should have done was to stop the car so that the drunk and belligerent Sheppard could extract his revenge by punching Bryant in the face”.