Ontario doctor accused of killing 4 acquitted at Crown’s request as trial set to begin
An eastern Ontario doctor accused of killing four people has been acquitted on all charges at the request of the Crown.
Prosecutors say they asked for directed verdicts of acquittal today as Dr. Brian Nadler’s trial was set to begin in Ottawa. No evidence was called in the case.
Crown attorney Robin Flumerfelt says in an email that they could not proceed with the case in light of pretrial rulings that, among other things, excluded the evidence of the Crown’s expert witness.
He says the Crown chose this route in order to retain the right to appeal the pretrial rulings, which it could not do if the charges were dropped or stayed.
Nadler was initially charged in 2021 with first-degree murder in the death of 89-year-old Albert Poidinger at the Hawkesbury and District General Hospital.
Police then laid three additional charges of first-degree murder against him in the deaths of 80-year-old Claire Briere, 79-year-old Lorraine Lalande and 93-year-old Judith Lungulescu.
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Four charges of criminal negligence causing death involving the same four people were added later.
Nadler’s lawyers have said their client maintains his innocence, and that the four patients died from COVID-19.