Legal arguments regarding the admissibility of medical records began on the third day of the trial of a woman accused of criminal negligence and failure to provide basic necessities in connection with the death of a woman with Down syndrome who was in her care. While there was no new witness testimony in Astrid Dahl’s trial on Wednesday, the Crown said that the physician who examined Florence Girard’s body is expected to take a position later in the proceedings. Fifty-four-year-old Girard was found dead in a house in Port Coquitlam on October 13, 2018. In the Crown’s opening statement Monday, prosecutor Jay Fogel told the court Dahl had been Girard’s caretaker for many years: first in a group home where Dahl worked. and then at Dahl’s house for about eight years. “At that time, over time, it is said that Ms. Dahl stopped taking Ms. Girard to her doctor, stopped taking her to the dentist, stopped taking refills for medications previously given by Ms. Girard.” said Fogel. . “The crown theory is that this failure to bring Ms Girard to her various appointments to take proper care of her health led to Ms Girard’s condition deteriorating so that she did not eat properly and then Ms Dahl failed to ensure she received adequate nutrition, which caused her death “. Vogel said the court would hear from a physician who believes Girard’s death was caused by starvation or malnutrition. The defense has not yet presented its case. Girard’s sister, Sharon Bursey, returned to the courtroom on Wednesday and testified on the first day of the trial that she saw her sister as often as she could and wanted to care for her when changes were made to Girard’s team’s home. “I always spent a lot of time with her,” Bursey said. “I wanted to take her to live with me, but I could not afford to quit my job and not be subsidized by the government.” He testified that he first met Dahl about 20 years ago at the home of Girard’s team. In an audio recording of a statement Dahl made to police the day after Girard’s body was found, Dahl said Girard’s appetite had decreased in the weeks before her death. When asked by an RCMP officer why he did not take Girard to the doctor, he said he did not know, adding, “I guess I did not panic.” In the recorded statement, which was given in court on Tuesday, Dahl said that the day before she was found dead, Girard tried to feed her puree, but said that she “did not respond” to the food. “I almost knew it would be her last night alive. “You could see it in her,” Dahl said. “He was trying to drink, you could see that he wanted to and then you could see that he just gave up.” Dahl said she put Girard to bed and then went to bed herself after taking some NyQuil to sleep shortly after catching the flu the previous day. Dahl told police she went to Girard’s room the next morning around 10 a.m. and it was cold to the touch. “I opened the door, shouted her name, walked over, touched her on the forehead,” Dahl said. “I’m out. I went to my room and closed the door. I do not know if I was there for half an hour. I did not know what to do… I did not know how to react “. Dahl said she called police around 1pm after picking up her phone and investigating what to do when someone dies. Cpl. Shannon Lopetinsky asked Dahl if there was a spot in the night that she thought Girard should go to the hospital. He said no. “I guess in the back of my mind, I thought, ‘Tomorrow will be fine,’” Dahl said. “I do not know.” On Thursday, the court is expected to hear the testimonies of the employees in the non-profit organization that supervised the share at home.
