jury this morning after Chief Justice Austin Ward finishes his summation and gives the panel directions on the law.

Johnston, 36, of Fentons Drive, Pembroke is charged with wounding one Police officer and assaulting two others.

He is alleged to have wounded Det. Con. Barry Valentine Richards with intent to do grievous bodily harm on December 29, 1996. He has pleaded not guilty to an alternative charge of unlawfully wounding the officer.

He has also denied assaulting Police officers Gary Staines and Beldwin Smith on December 29, 1996.

Police arrested Johnston on Roberts Avenue, Devonshire and he is alleged to have head butted one officer and kicked another one in the shins.

Crown counsel Charlene Scott said that the first two officers on the scene were unable to arrest Johnston because he struggled so strenuously that back up had to be called.

Consequently, Ms Scott said that if it was not Johnston's intention to hurt the Policemen, he would not have acted in this manner.

Johnston was arrested after he allegedly dropped a brick inside a Police car that Det. Con. Richards was sitting in.

At the time, the car was parked on St. Monica's Road, but Johnston, who testified for the first time yesterday, said he was never in the area.

Instead he said he was at a friend's home near Palmetto Road and they left there together and went to Roberts Avenue to search for some painting equipment.

It was there that Police officers approached him and placed him under arrest.

Johnston said the Police officer who was driving the car elbowed him in the face and forced him to keel over.

Another officer who was seated to his right beat him about the body and at no time was he ever told why he had been arrested.

Emergency room doctor Constance Richards said she was called to the hospital where she found Johnston in Police custody. Her examination revealed that he had a broken nose, a black eye, scratch marks on his neck and a broken shoulder blade.

She said his injuries were consistent with a person who had sustained blunt trauma.

Dr. Richards said she could not say whether it was a blow from an elbow that broke Johnston's nose. She said a punch could have had a similar effect.

When Ms Scott suggested that Johnston's broken nose could have been the result of the defendant's own action in head butting one of the officers, Dr.

Richards replied that it would explain the broken nose but not the trauma to his eye.