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Fort Smith councillor sentenced Paul Bickford Northern News Services Published Monday, August 15, 2011
In Hay River territorial court on Aug. 10, she was fined $1,300 and prohibited from driving for 15 months on a charge of operating a vehicle with a blood-alcohol level exceeding 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. She was also fined $150 for resisting arrest. Sauteur-Chadwick, 41, pleaded guilty to the charges in January. They arose from her arrest in Hay River shortly before 5 p.m. on Nov. 14 of last year. Crown prosecutor Bonnie Tulloch presented what she called a "very bad" set of agreed facts to the court. Tulloch said Sauteur-Chadwick was driving a van from Fort Smith to Hay River with her two sons -- both under the age of 10 -- in the backseat. Another female traveller observed a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the highway and recognized the driver as Sauteur-Chadwick. The woman caught up to the vehicle and offered to drive it into Hay River as she felt Sauteur-Chadwick was in no state to drive. "This citizen then did drive the vehicle to Hay River and stopped along a secondary road, where she noticed that the accused had an open bottle of liquor in her purse," Tulloch said. The Crown attorney said Sauteur-Chadwick took back the keys and drove away, cutting off another vehicle as she got back onto the highway and almost swerved into a guardrail. The woman who had driven Sauteur-Chadwick's van called the RCMP. A constable spotted Sauteur-Chadwick's vehicle at the Homesteaders gas station on the outskirts of Hay River. She walked out of the building and the officer called to her, but she didn't acknowledge him. "She got back behind the wheel of the van and tried to shut the door, but was stopped by the officer," Tulloch said. "She was fiddling with her van keys, eventually putting them into the ignition." Sauteur-Chadwick told the officer she planned on driving back to Fort Smith. It took two officers to remove her from the van and place her in a police vehicle as she struggled. At one point she tried to knee one of the officers. Defence lawyer Michael Hansen told the court the reason she didn't get out of her vehicle was she wanted to explain to her children what was happening and she didn't want them to be left alone. After two breath samples, her blood-alcohol levels were recorded at 190 milligrams and 180 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. Hansen noted Sauteur-Chadwick, a librarian who had no previous criminal record, was under a lot of stress at the time, including a rocky patch in a relationship, and had begun a downward spiral into alcoholism. However, he said his client recognizes those issues do not excuse her behaviour. "She made a very serious error in judgment in deciding to drive that day," he said, adding she takes complete responsibility for her actions and her decisions. The lawyer noted his client took immediate steps after the incident to address her problems, including spending seven weeks at a treatment program in B.C. In her comments to court, an emotional Sauteur-Chadwick apologized for her behaviour. While acknowledging she has already apologized to them many times, she again apologized to her children who were in the car with her. "They're young and they didn't get a voice or a choice in the decisions that I made to put their lives at risk on that day," she said. Among others, she also apologized to anyone who was on the road that day and to the RCMP officers. She said she will live the rest of her life with the shame of how she treated the two officers who were doing their jobs trying to protect her. "My behavior on that day was completely out of character," she said. After hearing those comments, Judge Christine Gagnon said she believes Sauteur-Chadwick has the awareness and insight she needs to change her life. The Crown withdrew another charge of impaired care and control of a motor vehicle.
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