The case of a fashion entrepreneur charged in connection to a fatal hit and run in a Cabbagetown laneway last September moves into court for the first time Thursday.

Michelle Shemilt, 34, was charged in January after investigators became aware of “significant discrepancies” in statements she made to police about a man lying on the ground on Nuthatch Lane, near Carlton and Parliament Sts., according to a sworn Toronto police affidavit.

The affidavit was filed by police court in order to obtain a warrant to search. It contains unproven allegations from the police investigation to that point.

“I was just walking home and I saw someone lying in the middle of the lane and I don’t know if they need help or not ...” Shemilt told a 911 operator on Sept. 21, 2018, the affidavit says. She was transferred to EMS and repeated what she had seen “while ... walking home.”

About an hour later, the 911 dispatcher called Shemilt and asked if she had made the earlier call. “The dispatcher asked her if she was driving or stopped and spoke to the male. She replied ‘ ... Oh I was just driving home and I saw him from the other side of the lane and I called the police and they said an ambulance was on the way.’”

The affidavit says Shemilt provided contradictory information to police that included the times and direction that she was travelling on Nuthatch and whether she was “driving home from work or out for a walk.”

Shemilt’s lawyer, Daniel Brown, called it a “tragic situation.”

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Toronto woman charged three months after man fatally struck by car

“Ms. Shemilt will vigorously defend her innocence and we ask that people not rush to judgment without hearing all of the evidence.”

She is charged with failing to stop at the scene of an accident that involved death and causing death by criminal negligence.

On Sept. 21, 2018, at approximately 3:55 p.m., Cabbagetown resident Danna Osbourne was riding her bike when she spotted the victim, Michael Watts, in a “starfish” position and occupying about half the lane which runs north and south, according to the affidavit. He is identified in the court documents although police have not released his name.

Concerned that he might be run over, Osbourne asked if he was all right and he advised he was “OK,” the court document says. She believed he was intoxicated. About 10 minutes later, another Cabbagetown resident, internationally acclaimed author Michael Ondaatje, called 911 and reported that he was driving home and saw a man lying on the laneway with a “serious” head injury, the affidavit says. Investigators examined and ruled out his silver Audi as being involved in the fatality.

Toronto paramedics arrived on scene and believed Watts, 58, had been assaulted. He was taken to St. Michael’s Hospital where he died from what was determined to be multiple blunt force injuries consistent with being in a collision with a motor vehicle. Watts had no fixed address.

Based on physical evidence at the scene, including blood drag marks, police believed a “person unknown” was behind the wheel of a vehicle that ran over Watts.

A few days later, Det.-Consts. William Gee and Francesco Girmenia obtained residence security camera video and identified a black Dodge Durango travelling south on Nuthatch Lane around 4:01 p.m. on Sept. 21. According to the search warrant request filed in the Ontario Court of Justice, part of the driver’s arm “can be seen and appears to be Caucasian and positioned in a manner consistent with a person holding a cellular phone of their left ear.”

On Sept. 25, the officers went to Nuthatch Lane and saw a Dodge Durango, similar to the one they observed on the security footage, driving northbound on Nuthatch Lane and park in a detached garage behind a home on Ontario Street.

After securing the garage, Toronto police sought a judge’s permission to search the house, garage and vehicle for blood and other bodily substances and other evidence connected to the victim, according to the court document.

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A judge signed off on the search warrant request and it was executed on Sept. 26.

Shemilt is not expected to appear in court Thursday. She is the founder of NUMI, a brand of anti-sweat, organic women’s undershirts. In 2017, she appeared on the television show Dragon’s Den seeking some investment money.

According to an online biography, Shemilt has worked as a model and was a former Bay Street equity trader.