P.E.I. man gets jail for driving drunk after wedding
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Driving drunk after a marriage reception has resulted in jail time for a P.E.I. man.
Christopher James Gallant, 27, was sentenced on Feb. 25 to 5 days in jail and a $1,500 tremendous in provincial courtroom in Charlottetown. Chief Decide Jeff Lantz additionally ordered Gallant to pay a $450 sufferer surcharge and banned him from driving for one yr.
Gallant pleaded not responsible to the impaired driving cost and had a one-day trial in November.
Lantz discovered Gallant responsible of the offence on Dec. 17. On that day, Lantz recounted the proof offered at trial.
On Aug. 15, Gallant and his girlfriend attended a marriage reception at Inexperienced Island Getaways on Rattenbury Highway in Granville. The couple phoned a taxi however was anxious to get dwelling, so Gallant determined to drive.
The bride seen that the couple was gone and tried phoning them however did not get a response. So, she phoned 911 out of concern that Gallant is perhaps driving drunk. She gave an outline of Gallant’s 2017 white Nissan Rogue to the 911 operator.
Whereas a Charlottetown police officer was driving to Gallant’s residence to comply with up on the 911 name, he noticed the white Nissan approaching in the other way. Gallant’s car took up 60 per cent of the street because it approached, which pressured the officer to veer off to the proper to keep away from a collision. The officer testified at trial that if he wasn’t at an intersection, he would have needed to drive up on somebody’s garden to keep away from the collision with Gallant’s car, stated Lantz.
At that time, the officer circled and activated the police car’s emergency lights. Gallant continued driving previous a couple of extra homes till reaching his Charlottetown residence. Gallant was arrested and brought to the Charlottetown police station, the place he supplied two breathalyzer samples – 140 and 130 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The authorized restrict is 80 mg.
On the trial, Gallant’s lawyer Conor Mullin claimed that his consumer’s Constitution of Rights and Freedoms safety in opposition to unreasonable search and seizure was violated that night time and that the officer did not have the grounds for the arrest and the following breathalyzer demand.
Lantz disagreed and defined that the officer’s observations have been affordable and possible grounds to suspect that Gallant was impaired. These observations included Gallant’s shiny eyes, slurred speech and an odor of alcohol in addition to the close to motorized vehicle collision with the officer’s car.
Gallant did not have a previous prison file.
Terrence McEachern is a justice reporter with the SaltWire Community in Prince Edward Island.
