'Officer 728' will go to trial in 2016 for assault caught on video

Stéfanie Trudeau, aka "Officer 728," will only go to trial in 2016 after allegedly assaulting a man in his home in 2012.

She is accused of using excessive force in arresting Serge Lavoie after catching him drinking a beer outside his residence on Oct. 2, 2012.

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She followed him into his apartment building and put him in a headlock in the presence of at at least three other people. The incident was captured on a cellphone video and posted online.

The 42-year-old officer is still on leave without pay from the Montreal police force.

She was not in court on Wednesday when her lawyer, Jean-Pierre Rancourt, deposed a formal request to have the charges against her dropped.

The lawyer contended that the charges against the four people involved in the altercation were dropped in exchange for incriminating Trudeau in their testimony.

The charges against Lavoie, Simon Pagé, Karen Molina and Rudi Ochietti were withdrawn in March 2013. Trudeau was charged with assault on March 21, 2014.

He said the delay in charging her was done in bad faith, and that the Crown is determined to prosecute Trudeau at any cost.

In late 2014, the Crown agreed to try Trudeau by summary trial rather than as an indictable offence, a move which both reduces the charge and gives Trudeau an expedited trial.

She now faces the possibility of six months in jail because of that, rather than the five years she was initially facing.