Justice Guy Mahaffy made an extremely rare ruling Tuesday allowing for new evidence to be introduced after he convicted a Sudbury man in December of intimidating a witness set to testify against the accused?s brother in a downtown stabbing incident.
After ruling new evidence would be allowed, Mahaffy ordered a mistrial and set a new trial date for Francis Pickford, 25. A new trial judge should hear all the evidence against Pickford, said Mahaffy.
Defence counsel Andrew Buttazzoni agreed and said Pickford would like to be tried with his brother Sean, who faces the same count of obstructing justice by intimidating witnesses Sept. 5.
Both Pickford brothers were charged with attempting to intimidate the same witness at a popular nightclub March 28 of last year.
