A former Humboldt Mountie accused of killing an Ottawa police officer will go to trial in February.
Kevin Gregson, 44, will stand trial for first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Ottawa police Const. Eric Czapnik outside a hospital emergency room on December 29, 2009.
According to the Ottawa Citizen, Gregson was scheduled to go to trial in late November 2011, but the trial was unexpectedly delayed when his lawyer asked to be removed from the case.
Gregson has hired a new lawyer and the case is expected to proceed on February 27.
Czapnik, a father of four, was sitting in his police cruiser outside The Ottawa Hospital's Civic campus, writing reports, when he was attacked. Gregson was detained at the scene after paramedics rushed to Czapnik's aid.
Gregson was on a suspension from the RCMP at the time of the incident. He had a long history of erratic behaviour while with Canada's national police force, including incidents while he was policing Humboldt.
Gregson, who was a member of the RCMP in Humboldt from 2003 to 2005, was appealing his dismissal from the RCMP at the time of Czapnik's murder. The RCMP chose to dismiss Gregson from service after he pleaded guilty to a charge of uttering death threats to a Mormon bishop in Regina in 2006. Gregson received a conditional discharge on that count, after his lawyer persuaded the judge that cysts in his brain had contributed to his behaviour.
Gregson's four-week murder trial is one of two trials he has set for 2012. He is also scheduled to stand trial on Sept. 10 on charges of possessing child pornography and sexually assaulting a child under the age of 12.
The death of Czapnik, the Citizen reported, "shocked and saddened the city."
