Saskatchewan Roughriders star Duron Carter is scheduled to stand trial on Dec. 3 after pleading not guilty to a single marijuana possession charge laid earlier this year.
Carter, 27, was not present in Saskatoon provincial court on Thursday when the charge, laid after he was arrested at the Saskatoon airport, was set for trial.
“Hopefully it’s a one day trial — in and out — and you have to accept what the Crown gives,” Carter told the Regina Leader-Post following Thursday’s win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
The cornerback and receiver was given an absolute discharge after pleading guilty to a separate marijuana possession charge in Winnipeg court late last month.
His lawyer, Louis Mercier, told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix last month the not guilty plea was entered in Saskatoon on the grounds of a Charter challenge.
Carter was “prejudiced” after the security video of his Feb. 1 arrest was apparently erased or deleted before it could be included in Crown disclosure, Mercier said.
Saskatoon Airport Authority vice-president Andrew Leeming said last month that videos are kept for 30 days, and a request for the footage of Carter’s arrest was made on June 15.
Speaking to the Regina Leader-Post in June, Carter said he did not view the charges against him as a distraction: “I don’t particularly think about it that much, to tell you the truth.”
—With Leader-Post files from Murray McCormick
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