SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A trial for assault - stemming from an altercation that left a man without his front teeth - will conclude in September.

Alden Lennie is accused of beating a 19-year-old man outside the Gold Range bar on Nov. 29, 2008 after the two had been arguing over the phone earlier that night. The victim, a Fort Good Hope man, testified in territorial court on June 30 that Lennie had phoned his room at the Explorer Hotel.

Lennie was looking for the man's cousin, who was in the room, but the man told Lennie she wasn't there and the two had an argument. The man said he ran into Lennie a little later outside the bar, where he was attacked.

The man testified Lennie hit him with a closed fist before throwing him on the ground, where he was punched and kicked with steel-toed boots in the face. Crown prosecutor Jill Andrews presented pictures of the man's injuries, which included a black eye, stitches to his lip, and four front teeth pushed in, which later had to be pulled out.

"They had to send me to Inuvik to have them pulled," the man told the court.

The man admitted to "having a few drinks" at the hotel room before the incident. Defence lawyer Garrett O'Brien pointed out the man had originally told RCMP he and Lennie were hitting each other after becoming embroiled in an altercation.

Lennie testified that he had been in an altercation with the man, but that it was the other man who threw the first punch. He said the man approached him outside the bar, hit him "about four times" when Lennie began hitting back.

O'Brien asked for the trial to continue last Friday so he could have time to try to locate a witness. The request was granted by Judge Christine Gagnon. A further date for the trial was set by Judge Robert Gorin on July 7 to conclude on Sept. 16.

A second trial for Lennie, on an unrelated matter, was also scheduled for Tuesday, June 30.

The charges of assault causing bodily harm and uttering threats were stayed by Andrews after the witness in the case failed to show up.