Greg Fertuck’s prolonged homicide trial is dealing with one other delay: his legal professionals need off the case.
The catalyst for the delay is the complaints he filed towards his defence legal professionals earlier this yr, apparently questioning their competence.
Nevertheless, Fertuck did not inform his legal professionals about his complaints to the Regulation Society, they solely realized about them close to the top of August.
Now they are saying they will now not symbolize him and are looking for to withdraw from the trial.
Fertuck is accused of taking pictures his estranged spouse, Sheree Fertuck, in December 2015 at a gravel pit close to Kenaston, Sask., the place she labored.
Her stays have by no means been discovered. Police focused Greg Fertuck in an elaborate undercover police operation generally known as a “Mr. Huge sting.”
He was arrested for homicide in 2019 after telling undercover cops that he had killed his spouse and removed her physique.
Pandemic compelled early delay
Justice Richard Danyliuk is presiding over the first-degree homicide trial, which started at Saskatoon’s Courtroom of King’s Bench in September 2021. All the proof heard thus far, together with all proof from the Crown, has been offered inside a collection of voir dires — trials throughout the trial correct to resolve the admissibility of proof.
It acquired off to a late begin, starting six months after it was alleged to due to COVID-19. The trial has additionally been delayed by the discovery of the alleged homicide weapon and delays in legal professionals’ written arguments.
The arguments from the Crown and defence on the voir dires had been alleged to be submitted by August’s finish however they have not been.
A gathering was held Wednesday to take care of a extra urgent matter.
The case administration teleconference, with Danyliuk, the Crown, Fertuck and defence legal professionals Morris Bodnar and Mike Nolin, was closed to the general public. Danyliuk issued a written fiat afterward that defined a few of what transpired.
“It got here to the eye of defence counsel that in Could and June of this yr Mr. Fertuck had complained about them to the Regulation Society,” he wrote, including he had not seen the complaints himself.
Bodnar and Nolin say they had been unaware of the complaints till the top of August.
Danyliuk says the Regulation Society’s delay and Fertuck’s allegations have critical repercussions for the trial.
Relationship with Fertuck ‘irrevocably broken’
“Mr. Fertuck talked about nothing about his Regulation Society complaints to his legal professionals as they continued to symbolize him in court docket. It’s truthful to say defence counsel have been blindsided by this improvement.”
The defence legal professionals suggested that Fertuck has questioned their “competence {and professional} integrity.”
“I’m glad from the small quantity of data made accessible to me that the allegations introduced by Mr. Fertuck are, in truth, grave,” Danyliuk wrote.
The legal professionals recommend the allegations are so critical “that the elemental belief underpinning the solicitor-client relationship has been irrevocably broken such that neither lawyer can symbolize Mr. Fertuck any longer.”
Their software to withdraw can be heard in open court docket on Oct. 24. Danyliuk wrote that he’ll be certain that Fertuck receives impartial authorized recommendation on the upcoming listening to and in addition the court docket course of forward.
“I’m involved about his skill to assemble and file written representations on the voir dires,” Danyliuk mentioned.
“Mr. Fertuck expressed a need to conduct the steadiness of his defence on his personal. He additionally indicated he was receptive to having counsel appointed to finish this trial.”
Danyliuk mentioned the impartial lawyer appointed to supply steerage to Fertuck will canvas these choices with him.
