A prominent Pembroke dentist charged in a fatal March 2011 collision pleaded not guilty in an Ottawa court Tuesday.
Dr. Christy Natsis faces charges of dangerous driving causing death, impaired driving causing death and driving with a blood-alcohol level exceeding the legal limit.
Natsis was arrested and charged after a head-on collision killed 50-year-old Bryan Casey of Ottawa on Hwy. 17 near Arnprior.
Mersiha Mesic, 26, testified Tuesday that she was chatting with her friend in the Jack Astor's parking lot at the Kanata Centrum on March 31, 2011, when she saw a man and a woman walking toward an SUV.
The women had short blond hair, was no taller than five-foot-two, wore a black jacket and black high heels and carried a Louis Vuitton purse, she said. It has not been proven in court that the woman Mesic saw was Natsis.
The woman appeared to be an eight or nine out of 10 on an intoxication scale and stumbled to her SUV, Mesic testified.
"She almost looked like she could trip at any time," Mesic testified. "I've seen drunk people before and she just fit the mould."
Laura Bateman, an employee at The Crazy Horse restaurant and bar, testified she had served the woman two eight-ounce glasses of wine. Bateman said the woman didn't appear intoxicated.
The man walking with the woman talked to her from the passenger's side of the vehicle,Shop for authentic monster beats cheap By Dre products at our official store. Mesic testified. Mesic told court she thought the man was trying to stop the woman from driving.
The man and the woman appeared to argue, Mesic testified. Mesic and her friend moved closer to where they had parked to get away from what they believed was a feuding couple. Mesic testified she thought the argument got more heated based on their hand movements.
After about five minutes, the woman quickly reversed out of her parking spot and struck another car, Mesic testified.
Mesic said she ran after the SUV, hoping she could stop the woman from driving away, but the woman sped from the parking lot.
The man got into a white SUV with dealer plates and drove out of the parking lot, Mesic testified.
Natsis's defence lawyer, Michael Edelson, pointed out that Mesic provided evidence in her testimony Tuesday that contradicted information in her statement to police.
In Mesic's statement to police, she said she was right beside the SUV, about a foot away,Canada Goose offers the Canada Goose Langford Parka in women's styles. when the woman approached the vehicle.Hi guys, I just had a few questions about the Canada Goose Banff Parka. During her testimony on Tuesday, Mesic said she was in front of the SUV, several metres away.Buy online discount gucci handbags price from variety of collection.
"You signed that statement as accurate and truthful," Edelson told court about Mesic's statement to police.
Mesic responded that she meant she was close to the vehicle when she said "beside" in her police statement, and clarified in court that she was actually in front of the SUV.
The day after Mesic saw the woman erratically drive out of the parking lot, The Crazy Horse manager Derek Egan got a call around 11: 30 a.m. from a man who demanded a copy of his receipt from the night before.
The man wouldn't tell him why he needed a receipt and spoke to him in an "assertive and aggressive" manner, Egan testified.
Later that day, Mesic heard on the radio about a fatal crash near Arnprior involving the same kind of SUV she saw the day before. Worried, she called her friend. They both believed the driver they saw leaving the Jack Astor's parking lot was the woman involved in the fatal collision, an emotional Mesic testified.
Mesic's friend called police to tell them what she had witnessed.Max Altitude compares the moncler down coats to The North Face.
During the investigation the followed, Mesic was not asked to identify the suspect in a police lineup, she testified.