9 hours ago
‘It's unacceptable': Adam Drake's defence lawyer blocked from leaving court, followed
The defence lawyer for the man accused of killing battle rapper Pat Stay says he was blocked from leaving the parking lot of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Dartmouth and subsequently followed.
Michael Lacy told Justice Scott Norton about the incident before the judge delivered his final instructions to the jury in Adam Drake's second-degree murder trial on Tuesday.
Lacy said justice system participants deserve to do their jobs 'without being harassed, intimidated, physically accosted, followed away from the courthouse.'
Lacy acknowledged the need for defence lawyers to have 'thick skin,' but said people are not entitled to 'physically intimidate counsel, whether it's the Crown of defence counsel, to get in their way and impede them from leaving, following them after they leave the courthouse.'
'This is the kind of thing that's happened over the last two days in this trial,' he said.
'Not once in the 28 years that I have practised, have I been subjected to that conduct and I watched Ms. (Jennifer) MacDonald be subjected to that conduct.'
After eventually leaving the courthouse on Monday, Lacy said he was followed, and that fellow defence lawyer Jennifer McDonald was behind the 'thug' who was following him, calling the person 'one of the thugs from the mob of the misinformed.'
He said there was video of that person 'aggressively driving' with no licence plate, following them and circling in a parking lot they ended up in, to the point where police were called.
Lacy said he wanted to make it part of the court record, but it didn't impact his ability to defend Drake. He said he didn't want to become a complainant for the purpose of doing his job, but he did want to ensure the jurors weren't impacted and that they didn't see or read about what happened.
'It's unacceptable, it shouldn't happen,' Lacy said.
Ultimately, after learning through video surveillance footage that jurors were not present, he decided not to ask that the judge's instructions to the jury reflect the incidents.
Drake is accused of fatally stabbing Stay at a Halifax nightclub on Sept. 4, 2022. He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
The jury began deliberations Tuesday afternoon following a six-week trial.
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