Former Montreal baseball coach accused of sex assault on minor loses bid to throw out case

Former coach will not have abuse case tossed A former West Island sports coach accused of sexual assault was not able to have his case tossed out.

The trial of a West Island baseball coach accused of sexually abusing a minor will proceed after the case was almost thrown out due to unreasonable delays.

Robert Litvack, 43, filed a motion to seek a stay of proceedings after he was charged in 2021 on one count of sexual interference and one count of sexual assault.

Justice Jean Jacques Gagné dismissed the motion Thursday morning.

The defence had argued that by the time the trial was expected to end in mid-July, a total of 1,150 days, or roughly 38 months, would have passed since charges were laid, exceeding the deadline set by the Supreme Court of Canada's landmark Jordan ruling.

The top court set a limit of 30 months for trials to be completed in Superior Courts.

However, the judge attributed some of the delays — 249 days — to the defence, which means the total delay in the case was 901 days, or 29.6 months, since the charges were laid, just shy of the Jordan ceiling.

The trial is expected to begin July 15.

The accused coached minor baseball players and was a baseball coach and administrator with the Lac Saint-Louis baseball organization since 2008.

Litvack allegedly sexually assaulted one of his players during private lessons, police said in a news release after he was arrested.

-- with files from CTV News' Olivia O'Malley.