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Among friends â€" Steve Bowskill, centre, arrives at court last T for him by his supporters, carrying placards. By the end of the pharmacist was expressing dismay that the case was to drag Photo by Eileen Argyris 2. 19 arrives at court last Thursday and a path is cleared Burstit on i Prnces M is day, however, the Colborne on to another date, Sept. 1. wl Although he and his lawyer, Calvin Martin of Toronto, had expected the case to proceed and conâ€" clude in that one day, the Crown had not finished with its parade of witnessâ€" es by 4:30 p.m. when Judge John Bark recessed. The trial is to continue Sept. 1 in Brighton. The charges against Mr. Bowskill arise from an incident Feb. 17, when his pharmacy was robbed by two men who broke in between 3 and 4 a.m. Mr. Bowskill heard the noise of their entry from an apartment above the store, and went down â€" armed â€" to investigate. Mr. Bowskill, owner of Downey Pharmacy in Colborne, went to court last Thursday having pled not guilty to two weapons charges â€" unsafe storage and careless use of a firearm. It was the eighthubreak- in the business had susâ€" tained in two years. Ordered by Mr. Bowskill to stop, the thieves instead fled out a back entrance and toward a waiting getaway van. Mr. Bowskill has admitted to firing his revolver twice at the right rear tire for the He then gave chase in his own vehicle and called police from his car‘s celluâ€" purpose of stoppl;{é the vehicle. By Eileen Argyris It will be a long, hot summer for Steve Bowskill, his family and supporters. Bowskill goes to court . . . but it‘s not over yet FACED DOWN CROOKS in turn whether they could hit the tire if they shot at it from a distance of 20 to 30 feet. But Mr. Martin, the defence lawyer, refuted the Crown‘s arguments by asking each of the police Each of them admitted they could, with one offiâ€" cer, Steve Grosjean of the Brighton OPP, saying only that he thought he could hit it, if he weren‘t stressed. At this, Mr. Martin remarked that perhaps the young detective should invest in some stress management sessions. At day one of the trial last Thursday, Crown attorney David Thompson called six witnesses, five of them police or police perâ€" sonnel, in an attempt to establish that Mr. Bowskill had acted in a careless manner when he shot off a revolver in the vicinity of residential areas and trayâ€" elled streets. The Crown lost what appeared to be important ground when Judge: Bark disallowed two sets of witâ€" nesses. lar phone. _ The defence attorney objected to the presentaâ€" tion of these witnesses and added, "Mr. Bowskill is not pretending he didn‘t know â€" what "he was doing.... We are saving it is glsanowed two Sue\;scof" ;;2 The defence attorney told nesses. the court, "The police are making an issue out of the PREVIOUSLY WARNED _ I¢Eistration, when they One group of witnesses . 2T¢ likely at fault." would have testiffed thatâ€"â€"Heâ€"saidâ€"there had Beon Mr. Bowskill has been preâ€" some question about regâ€" viously warned about the . istration documents being use of firearms in lost. attempts to stop crimiâ€" Although the Crown nals. argued that Mr. Bowskill‘s During four of the eight breakâ€"ins at his store, the pharmacist has faced down the perpetrators â€" armed â€" and persuaded them to remain until police arrived. Judge Bark ruled the "value of the evidence would be outweighed by its prejudicial effect." not a departure from. the standards of a reasonable person." When Mr. Martin further charged that the Crown was trying to "blacken Mr. Bowskill‘s character," Judge Bark agreed. The judge compared the charge against Mr. Bowskill â€"careless use of a firearm â€" to careless driving. He noted that it would be immaterial in a charge of careless driving how many times the accused had been warned previously, the issue before the court is whether he was guilty of carelessness in this instance, or not. GUN NOT REGISTERED? Later the Crown attemptâ€" ed to introduce evidence that the gun used by Mr. Bowskill was not a regisâ€" tered weapon, but the judge disallowed that, also. cents + 8 Mr. Martin noted that having an. unregistered weapon was a chargeable offense, but Mr. Bowskill Although the Crown argued that Mr. Bowskill‘s failure to make certain that all documentation was in place constituted a form of carelessness, the defence countered that the Crown was attempting to conduct "a trial within a