Robin Gomez left to find own defence in assault trial
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The Victoria Salmon Kings left Robin Gomez to find his own defence counsel after being charged with assault casing bodily harm against fellow ECHL player Chris Ferraro.
Father and son defence lawyers Alexander and Jordan Watt represented the 27-year-old former Victoria Salmon Kings player pro bono, the senior Watt told the Victoria News.
The Salmon Kings organization declined to comment on the trial which wrapped up yesterday in provincial court in Victoria.
Gomez punched Ferraro – a Las Vegas Wranglers player – during a regular season game on Saturday, March 1, 2008 at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria. Gomez was suspended for the remainder of the 2007-08 season and playoffs while Ferraro returned to play a few months after the incident. This past season Gomez played for the Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central Hockey League and Ferraro played for the Wranglers.
Jordan Watt is a former goaltender who played for the WHL's Kelowna Rockets and the University of Ottawa before becoming a lawyer. He outlined the defence's case yesterday during closing statements.
"There was only one witness who said this incident was outside the realm of the game of hockey," he said. "And there was only one witness that said this punch was a 'sucker punch,' and that was Mr. Ferraro on both occasions."
Crown prosecutor Kimberly Henders Miller argued the punch Gomez delivered to Ferraro in retaliation for his "trash talking" the Salmon Kings player was beyond the implied consent to violence within the game of hockey. Ferraro repeatedly testified during the trial that he was "sucker punched", while Gomez testified the two "made eye contact" before he hit him.
"(Ferraro) is a skilled athlete who is trained to act quickly but there is nothing to indicate about his body language that he was prepared for what happened," said Henders Miller.
Video of the incident was shown numerous times in court and is now online at www.vicnews.com.
Judge Mike Hubbard, who is expected to deliver a verdict Thursday afternoon, noted early in the trial he is unfamiliar with the game of hockey. He stopped testimony from multiple witnesses during the trial to have various rules of the game explained to him, including icing, offside and the neutral zone.
The referee and two linesmen who officiated the game were also called as witnesses for the Crown. All three said they did not hold Ferraro in high regard as a person, and all three were "shocked" when they were contacted by the Victoria Police Department during the investigation.
patrickb@vicnews.com
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