toronto chair girl

Toronto chair girl Marcella Zoia wants all charges to be dropped

Guess who's back? Back again? Chair girl's back... and you care. Yes you do, yes you do, yes you do, yes you do, yes you do, yes you do, yes you do (why? why? why?)

The 19-year-old Toronto woman who went viral for tossing a patio chair from the balcony of a high-rise condo building over Toronto's busy Gardiner Expressway earlier this year is the subject of news headlines once again today, thanks to some comments from her lawyer.

Criminal defence attorney Greg Leslie told reporters outside a courtroom in downtown Toronto this afternoon that his client, Marcella Zoia, is "hoping for a discharge" in the court case stemming from her involvement in a chair-throwing incident near York and Harbour Streets on February 9.

Zoia was charged on February 13 with mischief—endangering life, mischief—damage to property over $5,000, and common nuisance after turning herself in at the behest of Toronto Police.

She was released that same day on a $2,000 bail later and ordered to live with her mother, stay away from condo balconies and refrain from contacting anyone else involved in the chair-tossing video.

Known widely as "Chair Girl," Zoia got the meme treatment pretty hard in the days following her arrest, but has stayed out of the public eye, for the most part, since she was released (unless you count the internet. She's still quite active on Instagram).

Just over one month ago, Zoia was scheduled to appear at Old City Hall to set a date for her trial. She sent her lawyer instead and he argued that there shouldn't be a trial at all.

He also said that Zoia had been kicked out of her dental hygiene program at school and that she'd lost a lot of friends as a result of the widely-publicized incident.

Today, during another scheduled court appearance, he stood in for his client once again.

Zoia is "more or less living at home," and "doing fine" said Leslie to reporters after a brief court appearance this afternoon. He also noted that she is "endeavouring to get into another school."

Pretrial hearings are set to continue, however, as the Crown and defence are reportedly still at odds over how the case should proceed.

Zoia's case is now scheduled to go back in front of a judge on June 14.

Lead photo by

Marcella Zoia


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