HAY RIVER - Fort Smith town councillor Sheila Sauteur-Chadwick has pleaded guilty to two criminal charges.

The charges are resisting arrest and having a blood/alcohol level exceeding 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood while in care and control of a motor vehicle.

The pleas were entered when Sauteur-Chadwick appeared in Hay River territorial court on Jan. 19.

The case has been set over to March 16 for facts and sentencing. A pre-sentence report will also be prepared for the court.

Sauteur-Chadwick declined comment following the guilty pleas.

"It's too early," she said when asked by News/North if she wished to comment.

The charges arose from her arrest in Hay River on Nov. 14 of last year.

At the time, the RCMP received a complaint from a member of the public about an erratic driver.

The vehicle was located in the early evening at the Homesteaders Inn on the outskirts of Hay River.

"We received a complaint of an impaired driver and, when the member attended and located the vehicle, she wasn't driving," RCMP Sgt. Scott Buchanan explained at the time.

"She had care and control of the motor vehicle while she was intoxicated."

Two children were in the vehicle at the time of the arrest.

Sauteur-Chadwick spent that night in jail.

The 40-year-old was elected to Fort Smith town council in 2009.

Along with being a town councillor, she is also head librarian at Mary Kaeser Library.

Sauteur-Chadwick did not enter a plea to a third charge of impaired care and control of a motor vehicle. According to the Crown, the charge will be withdrawn when she is sentenced on the two other offences.

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