Our client, who was an off-duty police officer, was pulled over by police after someone called 911 to report an erratic driver on the highway. The arresting officer claimed that he then observed our client driving at a hight rate of speed while weaving back and forth. Our client was pulled over, arrested and taken to a police station where he blew more than twice the legal limit. He was charged with impaired driving and over 80. Prior to trial, we filed a Charter application alleging that the arresting officer did not have reasonable and probable grounds to arrest our client and that his rights to counsel were breached because the police unjustly terminated our client’s phone call with his lawyer before it was complete. At trial, we thoroughly cross-examined the arresting officer and exposed a number of exaggerations and some outright lies. Ultimately, the persecutor determined that due to the arresting officer’s impeached credibility, the trial judge was unlikely to find out client guilty. Our client was offered a deal to plead guilty to careless driving under the Highway Traffic Act (which did not result in a criminal record or a driving suspension) in return for a withdrawal of the criminal charges. Our client was more than happy to take the deal.
