Photo: File photo

Curtis Sagmoen

Curtis Wayne Sagmoen will be in a Port Coquitlam court room Monday to face a single charge of assault causing bodily harm.

The charge stems from a January 2013 incident in Maple Ridge where he allegedly assaulted a sex trade worker.

The trial is expected to last five days and when Sagmoen appears in court, he will not be alone.

Sagmoen has become a lightning rod for violence against women protesters and every time he appeared in a Vernon courtroom over the past year and a half, protesters were on the front steps.

The protests were organized largely by Jody Leon, who is heading to the Lower Mainland to join protesters at the Port Coquitlam court house.

Leon said several Lower Mainland organizations have said they plan on attending the proceedings.

“I anticipate there will be a fairly large turnout,” she said.

Along with the charge he is currently on trial for, Sagmoen is facing numerous charges in Vernon for which he has been ordered to stand trial.

Sagmoen, 36, has six counts against him in connection to the Aug. 28 incident near Falkland where a sex worker alleges she was threatened with a weapon before she managed to escape.

The charges include intentionally discharging a firearm and uttering threats to a sex trade worker.

In October 2017, RCMP launched a massive search of a farm on Salmon River Road near Silver Creek where they found the remains of 18-year-old Traci Genereaux who had been reported missing earlier in the year.

The farm belongs to Sagmoen's parents, and while police are calling the death suspicious, no link to Sagmoen has been made.