So­ca su­per­star Machel Mon­tano's much an­tic­i­pat­ed tes­ti­mo­ny be­fore a Port-of-Spain mag­is­trate yes­ter­day failed to come off for yet an­oth­er time. The en­ter­tain­er would now re­turn to court af­ter the Car­ni­val sea­son to open his de­fence on charges of as­sault and us­ing ob­scene lan­guage re­sult­ing from a fra­cas at the Zen night club. In the tri­al be­fore Mag­is­trate Mau­reen Ba­boolal-Gafoor, at the Port-of-Spain Fifth Court yes­ter­day, the court learnt that pros­e­cu­tor George Bus­by was en­gaged in le­gal ar­gu­ments at the near­by Hall of Jus­tice.

Mon­tano's at­tor­ney, Dana See­ta­hal, SC, ex­pressed her dis­ap­point­ment at the pros­e­cu­tor's non-at­ten­dance for the open­ing of the de­fence's case. The mat­ter was then ad­journed to March 9 and 10, when Mon­tano would tes­ti­fy. Mon­tano is joint­ly charged with Fezeck, 26-year-old song­writer/pro­duc­er and son of the late ca­lyp­son­ian, Lord Kitch­en­er, Ker­nel Roberts and Rod­ney "Ben­jai" Le Blanc, with as­sault­ing Rus­sell Pol­lon­ais. Mon­tano, Fezeck and Roberts, are al­so charged with as­sault­ing Bran­dis Brown.

Mon­tano, 33, al­so faces fur­ther of­fences of as­sault­ing Le Chee and Ger­ard Bowrin, and us­ing ob­scene lan­guage.