Doug McCallum’s attorneys drew evidence Wednesday that included rolling a VW Passat over the feet of 15 bodies to say — maybe. Defense lawyer Eric Gottardi told the provincial court judge overseeing McCallum’s public trial that the Crown “substantially lacked the standard of proof” required to convict the 78-year-old of falsely accusing a political opponent of a criminal offence. And that “regardless of any unintentional or unintentional embellishments” McCallum may have made when he told RCMP that Debi Johnstone drove her Mustang over his leg, the outgoing mayor was justified in filing a police report against her. “We say the evidence will establish that the underlying facts arising out of the incident between Mr. McCallum and Ms. Johnstone, when considered in their entirety and in context, sufficiently support the complaint that Mr. McCallum made to the RCMP,” he said Gottardi. “A complaint essentially for battery and criminal harassment.”
CSI meets JFK
Gottardi began the defense’s case after the Crown finished its submissions Tuesday following two days of testimony from Johnston and the RCMP’s lead investigator on the McCallum case. The Crown alleges McCallum lied to RCMP about an encounter in a Save-On-Foods parking lot on Sept. 4 that began with Johnstone yelling “Resign McCallum” from her open convertible and ended with her driving after it what she called a “heated dialogue,” during which she repeatedly swore at him and called him scaly. Debi Johnstone is the woman who outgoing Surrey mayor Doug McCallum is accused of hitting with her vehicle. (Submitted by Debi Johnstone) Johnstone, a member of Keep The RCMP in Surrey, a group opposed to McCallum’s plans for municipal policing, told police she thought it was her “lucky day” when she saw the chance to confront the mayor in person. The entire incident was captured on CCTV footage taken from inside the grocery store, but a bush obscured McCallum’s left leg and the rear tire of Johnstone’s vehicle. According to evidence presented by the Crown, police noted that McCallum did not appear to be limping in the minutes after he claimed to have run. He also told police that Johnstone “pinned” him into his car – something that is not seen in the video. To counter those suspicions, Gottardi called two experts whose testimony played out like CSI meets JFK, complete with a leg skeleton and a grainy, slowed-down, blown-up video of the crucial seconds.
“International Foot and Ankle”
Biomechanical engineer Dennis Chimic took the seat first. Chimic, an expert in the mechanics of the injury, reviewed both CCTV footage and McCallum’s hospital records, concluding that the swelling on the front of the mayor’s left leg was consistent with the damage reported in studies involving the foot running from cars. Defense lawyer Eric Gottardi walks in front of outgoing Surrey mayor Doug McCallum as they arrive in court this week. (Ben Nelms/CBC) The most notable of these was a 2007 study involving cadaver legs and the VW Passat. Chimic said the researchers put the “flash frozen” feet in various types of footwear before running them over, dissecting them and taking X-rays, eventually finding that bone injuries “were not expected” at lower speeds. He used the leg skeleton – which Gottardi found had not been removed from a corpse – to show the judge where the alleged damage was. Under cross-examination, Crown counsel Richard Fowler asked Cimich about the extent of his research, noting that a magazine is devoted exclusively to feet and ankles. It’s called Foot and Ankle International. Fowler said he is not a subscriber. The prosecutor pointed out that legs can swell for a number of reasons, including kidney problems and age-related issues. But the exchange led to a debate about whether this was a topic beyond Chimic’s expertise. Fowler returned to the question of other causes of swelling later in the day when the radiologist who reviewed McCallum’s X-rays took the stand. “You are unable to say how much soft tissue swelling there may have been in the previous week or the week before, is that correct?” Fowler asked him. “That’s right,” said the radiologist.
“The rear wheel could track”
Gottardi’s second witness was a mechanical engineer who used special software to create a 3D aerial photograph of the parking lot where McCallum and Johnstone collided. Bradley Heinrichs slowed CCTV video down to the point where it did one inch frame by frame in one-thirtieth-second increments. A CCTV footage captures the moment outgoing Surrey mayor Doug McCallum claimed Debi Johnstone fell over his leg in September 2021. (CCTV Save-on-Foods) In doing so, he said, McCallum “appeared to be looking down and his arms were jerking back” as the Mustang’s rear wheel went over his left leg. Heinrichs analyzed the arc of the car through the parking spot relative to McCallum’s position to conclude that “if you stand close enough, the rear wheel could track” over his left leg. He also said it was impossible to tell from the video if the mayor’s pacing changed after the meeting. On cross-examination, Heinrichs agreed with Fowler’s claim that McCallum “seemed to start walking behind the vehicle almost immediately” after Johnston left. The prosecutor noted the main drawback of the video – the bushes and the curb that hide both the tire and the leg from view: a grass, so to speak. “You can’t tell from your review of the video exactly where he was standing, so you can’t tell from your review of the video if his leg was tripped?” Fowler asked Heinrichs. Heinrichs agreed. The trial continues next Tuesday.
