Court Briefs
Man drove drunk with children in car
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, April 10, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A man was fined $3,000 and prohibited from driving for the next three years after pleading guilty to driving while impaired last summer with his with and three children in the car.
Marc LeCorre, the Crown prosecutor in the case said the 54-year-old man was driving toward Yellowknife from Behchoko on June 28 with his wife in the passenger seat and his children in the back seat. Yellowknifer is not naming the offender to protect the identity of the man's spouse and children.
A truck driver who was on the the road called RCMP and reported a man was "swerving from ditch to ditch" on Highway 3, according to LeCorre.
"The trucker also said he saw the man narrowly miss several pedestrians and bicyclists on the highway," said LeCorre.
RCMP caught up to the vehicle when he stopped at Gastown on Old Airport Road, LeCorre told territorial court on March 24.
Defence lawyer Timothy Dunlap told the court the offender has been receiving alcohol treatment since the incident and there had been some very traumatic incidents in his life leading up to the day he was arrested.
In sentencing the man, Judge Robert Gorin noted that he has a previous drunk driving conviction from 2009 in which he received a $2,000 fine and a one-year driving prohibition.
"Your driving was quite serious and disturbing," Gorin told the man. "You put everyone at serious risk, including the pedestrians, the cyclists, your wife and your children."
The ages of children in the back seat were not revealed in court.
Gorin also sentenced the offender to one day in jail which was covered by his day in court.
"A longer jail sentence was a very real possibility in this case," Gorin told him.
The man will be eligible to apply for the Interlock program. It allows convicted impaired drivers to install a device in their vehicle that they must blow into before the ignition will work. If they have more than a trace of alcohol in their system, the Interlock device prevents the vehicle from starting. Under Department on Transportation regulations, the man will have to wait six months because of his previous impaired driving conviction.
Man gets 15 days for stealing from cabbie
A man was sentenced to 15 days in jail after pleading guilty to stealing $1,025 from a cab driver last summer.
Dean McNeely was convicted of theft under $5,000 and sentenced by deputy judge Brian Bruser in territorial court on Wednesday. McNeely was also ordered to pay the money back to the taxi driver.
Court heard that in the early morning hours of June 24 of last year, an Aurora cabbie picked up two men and a woman near the Shell gas station on Range Lake Road.
Marc LeCorre, the Crown prosecutor told the court than McNeely took the money from the taxi driver's pocket before fleeing.
"McNeely was later identified by the driver when shown surveillance video from the Shell station," LeCorre said.
Jail is required LeCorre, told the judge as he noted that McNeely has prior convictions for theft and robbery. The 15 days was part of a joint submission agreed to by LeCorre and McNeely's lawyer Charles Davison.
"The short, sharp jail sentence would be a wake-up call for Mr. McNeely," Davison told the judge.
McNeely apologized for this actions prior to being sentenced. He said he can't remember the incident nor does he recall what he did with the money.
Bruser didn't really buy the wake-up call theory, noting that McNeely received a year in jail in 2006 for robbery and also had breach of probation convictions, the latest one coming in 2010.
"I am not sentencing you for robbery," Bruser told McNeely. "I'm sentencing you for theft under but you were right on the line of robbery. I am not going to change what the Crown and your lawyer have agreed to on sentencing.
"If it was left up to me I would have sentenced you to three to four months," Bruser said.
Man spared jail after breaking into liquor store
A man who pleaded guilty to smashing his way into the downtown liquor store in a failed attempt to steal two dozen bottles of booze has been spared jail time.
Yellowknifer has chosen not to identify the 20-year-old man because he has no prior criminal record. He was sentenced to three months of house arrest on March 26 by Judge Bernadette Schmaltz.
The man admitted in court that he broke the glass front door of the liquor store at about 2:00 a.m. on Sept. 28 of last year in order to gain entry. Court heard that the RCMP responded to an alarm and found him in the store with 24 mickey bottles of vodka stuffed into two bags.
Crown prosecutor Brendan Green told the court that the incident was only five days after the same man was caught on security video stealing cigarettes and snacks from the Reddi-Mart on 49 Street. He also pleaded guilty to that break and enter, admitting that he again smashed the glass door in order to get inside the store.
In calling for a 90-day jail sentence, Green said restitution to the two stores must also be paid.
"The impact to local small businesses must also be addressed," Green said. "They can't really afford the hundreds of dollars it costs to fix these doors."
The two damaged doors cost almost $1,500 to repair. Schmaltz ordered the man to pay restitution at the rate of $100 a month.
Defence lawyer Gary Wool said the young man has led a troubled life.
"Alcohol was a factor in both break-ins," Wool said. "He started drinking at age 13 and actually quit his job as a dishwasher because his father was demanding money from him to use to buy alcohol."
The man now lives with his teenage sister after his father abandoned them, Wool said.
Before he was sentenced, the man told the judge that he was "ashamed of his actions."
After his three months of house arrest are up, the man will then have to abide by a curfew for another month and then serve 18 months probation.
"You will be banned from possessing or consuming alcohol during your conditional sentence," Schmaltz told the man.
"I'm sparing you going to the North Slave Correctional Centre. You wouldn't be able to drink in there, so you won't be able to drink even though you won't be serving time there," Schmaltz said.
