A man awaiting a new trial for allegedly killing Brian Fudge more than a decade ago following a New Year’s Eve argument over who should be served first at a bar has been released on bail.



Ontario’s highest court released Charlie Manasseri from jail Tuesday, finding that Manasseri’s continued detention is unnecessary for the protection of the public or to maintain confidence in the justice system. He was released on a $125,000 bond and conditions that include a nightly curfew.



It was the latest twist in a murder case that has now dragged into its 13th year, at the same time as courts in Ontario grapple with the fallout of a Supreme Court decision on unreasonable delay and what to do about it.



Fudge had been celebrating his birthday on Dec. 31, 2004 when he got into a dispute over drinks with Manasseri at Le Skratch Bar on Merivale Road. Witnesses described watching Manasseri repeatedly bash the intoxicated 22-year-old’s head into a steel surface on the bar.



Fudge subsequently made his way outside the bar, where a 26-year-old man named George Kenny delivered another blow to the head that caused him to collapse unconscious. Fudge died two days later in hospital.



Seven years after he was first charged, Manasseri was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.



But last September, Ontario’s Court of Appeal reversed that decision and ordered a new trial for Manasseri so he can present new medical evidence that he hopes will clear his name.



The Court of Appeal also stayed the assault charge against Kenny, finding it took an unreasonable amount of time to bring the case to trial.



The attorney general’s office has since filed an appeal of the Manasseri ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court has yet to make a decision as to whether they will hear the case.



That uncertainty factored into the Ontario appeal court’s decision to release Manasseri.



Manasseri, 55, is tentatively scheduled to stand trial in October, although he has yet to retain a lawyer and the pending Supreme Court appeal could cause the trial date to be pushed back even further.



Appeal court judge David Watt wrote that keeping Manasseri behind bars until the scheduled completion of his trial – possibly in 2018 – would likely result in him serving more time in pre-sentence custody than what he would receive if he was convicted of anything but second-degree murder.



Watt wrote that a “different tableau” was likely to unfold at the second trial – one where the expert medical evidence would present a contrary view about what may have caused Fudge’s death.



The judge added that Manasseri is presumed innocent and was on bail for seven years without issue prior to the first trial.



It is the second time Manasseri has been released on bail since his murder conviction.



Manasseri was released before while awaiting the appeal court ruling, but was returned to jail after angrily confronting the pathologist who established Fudge’s cause of death following a chance encounter at an Ottawa gas station.



Watt dismissed Crown concerns over the breach, however, noting that Manasseri had served his time for it and that a single incident is neither proof there is a substantial likelihood he’ll reoffend or negate his previous success on bail.



Manasseri was released to the same sureties – his brother Tony and sister-in-law Pamela – who were supervising him the last time he was on bail and breached his conditions. Following that breach, the couple were ordered by an Ottawa court to forfeit the $125,000 bond they had posted for his release.



Manasseri’s bail conditions require him to remain in his home between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., stay away from witnesses in his trial, not consume drugs or alcohol and to surrender his passport.



aseymour@postmedia.com