An eastern Ontario doctor accused of killing four people was acquitted on all charges at the request of the Crown on Tuesday as his trial was set to begin in Ottawa.

Prosecutors said they asked for directed verdicts of acquittal for Dr. Brian Nadler, who worked at a hospital in Hawkesbury, Ont., in light of several pretrial rulings that made it impossible to continue with the case.

The rulings excluded the evidence of the Crown’s expert witness, among other things, they said.

“For all practical purposes, these rulings have decided the case against the Crown,” prosecutor Robin Flumerfelt said in an email.

He said 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.

No evidence was called in the case.

Nadler’s lawyers have said their client maintains his innocence, and that the four patients died from COVID-19.

Outside the courthouse, defence lawyer Brian Greenspan spoke of the impact the case has had on his client over the last several years.

“Three years under the cloud of four charges of first-degree murder, obviously has impacted enormously on one’s life, one’s prospect in terms of the future,” he said Tuesday.

“The cloud, and I refer to it as the innuendo of suspicion, is something which is difficult to overcome.”

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.

Court documents allege Poidinger died on March 25, 2021, and the three others died “on or about” that date. The documents say Briere, Lalande and Lungulescu also died in Hawkesbury, Ont.

Four charges of criminal negligence causing death involving the same four people were added later.

The trial was initially set to take place in June but was pushed back by a month.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 2, 2024.

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