Trial hits snag as accused refuses to waive lawyer-client privilege

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This article was published 15/11/2017 (2634 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The attempted-murder trial for a Winnipeg man accused of mailing bombs to local law offices has stalled over the issue of how much information his former lawyers can reveal about their relationship with the accused.

Guido Amsel, 51, is not waiving solicitor-client privilege with his former lawyer — and a judge will now have to decide what kinds of questions she’ll legally be allowed to answer on the witness stand. 

Sarah McEachern, who represented Amsel during a civil suit, and George Orle, a senior lawyer in the office that employed McEachern, were both scheduled to testify Tuesday in front of provincial court Judge Tracey Lord.

Amsel’s defence lawyer, Saheel Zaman, said it was his intention to object on the basis Amsel “emphatically” wants his solicitor-client privilege protected. Solicitor-client privilege generally means communication about legal advice between a lawyer and a client can’t be disclosed without the client’s permission.

Lord is set to hear arguments from both sides today about what is or isn’t privileged information before the lawyers can testify.

An explosive package addressed to Orle was mailed to the Orle Bargen Davidson LLP office at 280 Stradbrook Ave. more than two years ago. It exploded July 5, 2015, in a sand-bagged area outdoors after a police bomb robot fired water cannons at it.

Amsel is charged in connection with that incident and three other explosions — two of which targeted his ex-wife and one of which seriously injured his ex-wife’s lawyer, Maria Mitousis. He’s pleaded not guilty and maintains his innocence on all of the charges. 

Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft told court the Crown wants the lawyers to testify about any imminent danger that was apparent at the time, and said that doesn’t fall within solicitor-client privilege. “They can provide observations and a limited amount of communications to explain why they did what they did in the context of this matter,” he said.

Amsel’s trial has already heard from several police investigators, as well as postal workers and employees in the offices that received explosive packages.

Three packages — one to Mitousis’s law office on River Avenue, one to Amsel’s ex-wife’s workplace, and one to the Stradbrook Avenue law office — were delivered in early July 2015. The latter two exploded while being dealt with by Winnipeg police bomb robots; the first package caused an explosion that resulted in the loss of Mitousis’s right hand.

Amsel is also charged in connection with an explosion outside his ex-wife’s home in the RM of St. Clements in December 2013.

katie.may@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @thatkatiemay