The accused in the Victor Davis case is charged with manslaughter

MONTREAL – The man convicted of a crime of absconding after the accident that claimed the life of Olympic medalist Victor Davis in 1989 on the island of Montreal was accused Tuesday of manslaughter in a separate case.

Glen Crossley was formally charged with the death of Albert Arsenault, a 70-year-old man who died last September after an incident at a Montreal bar.

The accused, aged 46, surrendered to the authorities on Monday after a parent informed him of a warrant for his arrest. He appeared briefly by videoconference on Tuesday afternoon. He has not yet pleaded the charge of manslaughter.

Glen Crossley was sentenced in 1992 to a 10-month prison sentence for fleeing the scene of the accident that killed Victor Davis in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Island of Montreal. The four-time Olympic medalist had died of his injuries in hospital two days after the traffic accident.

Glen Crossley, who was driving the car that hit the swimmer, had served four months of his sentence before being released.

In the case of Albert Arsenault, the police, according to the family, first believed that the septuagenarian, a retired pumpman, had died accidentally, but the son heard another version and continued the investigation . The victim’s daughter, Rachel Arsenault, explained that the family wanted to know what really happened.

Rachel Arsenault said the family believed the 70-year-old was backing a staircase a few steps before being pushed, then suffering a fracture in the head and heart failure.

The man with the strong physical build had made other falls previously, but was in a good state of health, his daughter said in an interview.

The family did not attend the indictment, but will closely follow the proceedings.

The Montreal police said on Tuesday that major crime investigators had determined that the death of the victim was not accidental, but rather a criminal act. They came to this conclusion with the results of the autopsy performed on the victim and the information gathered during the investigation.

Neither the prosecution nor the defense wanted to discuss with the media the circumstances surrounding the death of Albert Arsenault.

Glen Crossley is scheduled to appear again on Wednesday for bail.