Doubling up dangerous

A B.C. businessman in a hurry will have to fork over some of his earnings after pleading guilty to careless driving in Jasper Provincial Court last Thursday (July 27). John Joseph Fritz, from Rosedale, was driving west on Highway 16 outside Jasper on May 11 when he was stopped by the RCMP at about 4:30 p.m. Fritz had been recorded travelling at 180 kilometres per hour, double the posted speed limit in the national park.

Described by provincial crown prosecutor David Clifton as a case of “grotesque speeding” the situation became worse for Fritz after he was stopped by the highway patrol. It was clear that the man had consumed some amount of alcohol, Clifton told the court.

“It was careless driving in a fairly substantial way,” he said. 

While Fritz did not attend the proceedings, his Edmonton-based lawyer admitted the circumstances of the case and further elaborated that his client had been observed by the RCMP just after passing three semi-trailers in succession.

“He took full advantage of the power of his vehicle, unfortunately,” the advocate said. 

Fritz had been initially charged with dangerous driving, but this was reduced to one count of careless driving as a result of the immediate guilty plea.

Presiding judge L.E. Nemirsky handed down a sentence that included a $1,000 fine and three months driving prohibition, and insinuated that Fritz had received a pretty good deal.

“In my mind, it’s borderline on whether the original charge could have been sustained,” he said.

Do the mess around

The heavy hammer of the law came crashing down on Thursday for two irresponsible campers that had despoiled the virgin wilderness of the Whistlers and Wapiti campgrounds.

In the first case, James Noel Holgate was fined $250 for a violating regulations that require campers to maintain a clean and safe site while accomodating themselves in the national park.

In the early morning hours of June 28, park wardens responded to a complaint of a messy site in the Wapiti campground. They discovered food, garbage and alcohol bottles spread throughout the site and within a tent, which was removed. The group using the site were employed in Jasper and using the campground as a temporary residence.

Federal crown prosecutor Vaughn Myers showed the court photographs of the chaos, which included food left in pots. 

Holgate acknowledged that the site was left in a state of considerable disarray, but argued that some consideration should be made for the fact that the campers had departed unexpectedly in order to bring one of their number into town after he had cut his foot on a piece of broken glass.

Judge Nemirsky clearly took this extenuating circumstance into account in sentencing Holgate, as he assessed a more substantial fine for a separate incident that came up on the docket moments later.

In this second case, Perry Aaron Hunter of Hinton admitted to keeping a messy campsite on June 12 in Whistlers campground. The items discovered by campground staff in this situation included a slingshot and beer bong as well as the usual garbage and open food. Hunter and his camping companions had previously been warned about the cleanliness issue, as well as excessive noise during their short stay at the campground. Having ascertained that none of the party had suffered a laceration or deep bruise, therefore mitigating their offence, Nemirsky fined Hunter $350.

Blown away

An inability to stay on his side of the yellow line on Highway 16 proved costly for a Hinton man. 37-year-old Marvin Jay Jeb was observed by local RCMP on the Yellowhead highway east of Jasper weaving over the centre line on several occasions while pulling a trailer. While Jeb was not violating the posted speed limit, the RCMP stopped his vehicle and when he submitted to blood alcohol analysis, he blew 290 on a scale where 80 represents the legal limit.

Jeb pled guilty to driving with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit. With a prior record of related charges acknowledged by the guilty party, Judge Nemirsky sent down from on high a substantial fine, totalling more than $2,000 after the inclusion of a 15 per cent victim surcharge. Furthermore, Jeb has been banned from operating a motor vehicle for one year, although he will be eligible to apply for the interlock program (where a breathalyzer element is installed to control a vehicle’s ignition) after three months.

One fine day

A Jasper man who had served 77 days in pre-trial custody was ordered to serve just one day in jail after he was convicted on one count of assaulting a police officer and one count of breaching his no-alcohol probation.

Judge L.E. Nemirsky handed down the sentence to Jason Simpson; taking into account that because of tougher conditions at the Remand centre, credit for time served is often given  as two to one. Nemirsky agreed with defense lawyer Laurie Rodger that Simpson had spent just about long enough in custody.

“It’s like he’s been in jail for six months,” Rodger said in court July 27.

Bad math aside, Rodger argued that there are strong disincentives for Simpson to stay out of trouble. Being denied access to his seven-year-old in Ontario would be the main one, Rodger explained.

Simpson, who helped tack the assault charge onto a breach of probation charge after he shoved and became belligerent to an officer who was trying to put the man in the Jasper RCMP detachment’s holding cell in May, had a record prior to this incident.

His 18-month abstaining from alcohol probation will continue for another 14 months.

Not getting earlier anger management treatment and counseling, which he is now ordered to undergo, was the defendant’s main regret, he told the court.

“Maybe I wouldn’t be in this position,” Simpson said. “It’s my own fault.”

Catch and release

A Hintonite charged with breaching the conditions of his probation wasn’t sure if he would just be picked up again after his sentence was delivered on July 27.

The reason Kelly Halfpenny was hesitant to leave the courtroom was because in order to get back to his home town, he would have to hitchhike from Jasper. The terms of his punishment state that he’s to abstain from drugs and alcohol, be under curfew and stay out of Jasper.

“Couldn’t I be released in Hinton, the van’s going that way anyway?” Halfpenny bartered with judge Nemirsky.

But Nemirsky wasn’t buying. The conditions state that for court matters, the defendant could be in-transit around the townsite. “But the key is that you leave immediately,” Nemirsky said.

Halfpenny will have to keep the same rules in mind when he’s back in Jasper provincial court August 10 for a possession of stolen property charge.