THUNDER BAY - Former Thunder Bay Mayor, Keith Hobbs, will stand trial for extortion next November.
The trial date of Nov. 18, 2019 was confirmed in a Thunder Bay Courtroom on Monday by Brian Greenspan, counsel for Keith Hobbs and Marissa Hobbs, who appeared via video, local attorney, George Joseph, who is representing Mary Voss, and Crown prosecutor, Andrew Sadler, speaking on behalf of Crown attorney, Peter Keen.
Scheduled for three weeks, the trial will be presided over by the Brampton, Ont. judge, Justice Fletcher Dawson. Greenspan indicated to the court that all three weeks will be required.
The Ontario Provincial Police first charged Hobbs, along with his wife Marissa Hobbs, with extortion and obstruction of justice, in July 2017. Voss was also charged extortion.
Following a preliminary hearing last August, Justice David Gibson ruled there was enough evidence to proceed to trial on all charges. However, in September 2018, Keen informed the court that he would not be proceeding on the obstruction of justice charge.
The initial court indictment accuses Keith and Marissa Hobbs and Voss of using “threats, accusations or menace of disclosing criminal allegations to the police” against former Thunder Bay attorney Alexander Zaitzeff in an effort to force him to purchase a house for Voss to live.
