A warrant has been issued for one of the key witnesses in the assault trial of former Summerland RCMP officer Andre Turcotte.

Chantal Meilleur did not appear in Penticton court Wednesday, leaving Crown counsel Cassandra Malfair unable to conclude the case which has now been put over until July 22. On Wednesday Judge Dev Dley heard from two witnesses who were passing by in the opposite direction on Nov. 29, 2007, the night that Ian Scott Campbell alleges he was beaten by the off-duty police officer. Campbell’s testimony on Tuesday said the man who assaulted him had identified himself as a police officer when he was instructed to get out of the vehicle and a badge was flashed right before the beating took place. Meilleur was Campbell’s girlfriend at the time and had been driving the vehicle.

Georgina Morin had been the passenger in a vehicle returning from a concert in Kelowna with her family on the night of the incident. As her husband approached the Sumac Ridge turnoff in Summerland she noticed two men who appeared to be in a verbal argument on the opposite side of the highway standing in front of a parked car

“It looked like a verbal confrontation. I could tell by the tall guy’s body language that he was quite angry, very aggressive,” Morin told the court, adding that the confrontation turned physical with several punches being thrown by the tall man and at least three kicks to Campbell’s stomach area once he fell to the ground. “It was very fast, his fist pulled back and was just drilling.”

She said Campbell appeared to be “completely in defence mode, cowering and turtling,” as the taller of the men began the physical assault. Morin told her husband to make a U-turn as they passed by, having to go the length of the median in order to do so. The woman pulled out her cell phone, called 911 and said she went to attend to Campbell, who was now lying in front of his vehicle unconscious. During this time the man who allegedly assaulted Campbell got in his vehicle and drove away, but not before Morin had given the 911 dispatcher his licence plate number.

Morin told the court it took between three to five minutes before Campbell woke up in a groggy, disorientated state with blood on his face, red swelling around his lips and eyes and smelling of alcohol. It wasn’t until the next day, when police arrived to take her family’s statement of the incident, that she learned the RCMP did not hear her correctly when she rambled off the licence plate number. Morin admitted that in the heat of the moment she had reversed the letters and numbers on the plate but corrected herself while on the phone with the 911 dispatcher. Still, she said when RCMP arrived to take her statement the following day the plate she provided had not been corrected and she told the officer of the mistake.

“They had the radio on open mic and I could hear what they were saying. The person on the other side said ‘you need to call me on a private line,’” Morin recounted of what happened after the officer called in the correct plate number. “They left for 20 minutes, came back and said thank you very much we are done.”

Const. Nicole Sansregret had been working in Summerland for about two-and-a-half years where Turcotte was her supervisor at the time of the incident. She was called out to Campbell’s assault that night in 2007 and upon returning the following day for her 5 p.m. shift, Turcotte was also in the office working. Sansregret explained the detachment had a new computer system and she was not quite comfortable with it yet so she asked Turcotte for assistance in bringing up the information on the assault file. The officer, who now works in Surrey, said she discussed some of the details of the assault incident with Turcotte at the time.

“I said there was a claim of assault and someone had shown a badge and there was some discrepancies on what was said and the licence plate number,” said Sansregret.

The officer admitted that later when she went out to collect the Morins’ statements and called in the new plate number she was instructed to call back on a private line where she learned that the new plate was Turcotte’s — who was living in Westbank at the time.

“I went back into the house and obtained the statement. I was flustered and I felt ... I didn’t want to be the investigator,” said Sansregret, admitting that she wasn’t very thorough with the Morins because of being ruffled by the newfound information.

The case will be back in Penticton provincial court on July 22 to fix a date to resume the trial.