Grande Prairie man guilty of impaired driving

A Grande Prairie man who pleaded guilty to impaired driving and had several other charges against him withdrawn received an immediate one-year driving prohibition and will learn his full sentence in March.

Randall James Benton was stopped by police in Jasper on July 25, 2011, for having one headlight out and an obstructed licence plate. The officer noticed the smell of alcohol and a subsequent test confirmed Benton’s blood-alcohol content at 0.12 per cent, court heard.

The Crown withdrew additional charges related to the incident following the guilty plea.

Benton is due for sentencing on March 8.

Illegal campers call police on themselves

Fear of a cougar trumped fear of the law for a group of people who had set up an illegal camp near Horseshoe Lake last summer, earning one man a $275 fine in Jasper court last week.

Court heard that Renaud Goulet and some friends were having a few beers around an outdoor fire on July 21, 2011, when they heard what they believed to be a cougar in the area and called the police for help.

A park warden and RCMP constable drove to the nearby parking lot and hiked up to the group, where they found open beer cans and a still-smouldering fire.

“They, in effect, turned themselves in,” defence attorney Laurie Rodger said.

Goulet pleaded guilty to the illegal fire, but Rodger told the court that Goulet thought the area was a proper campsite because the fire pit was already there when his group arrived.

Since the fire was small and Goulet had already paid a $115 fine for the beer cans, Rodger argued that the fine for the fire should be reduced to $200. The Crown was asking for a $300 fine.

Judge Vaughn Myers agreed to reduce the fine but by a lesser amount.

“Your skilled advocacy has lowered the fine to $275,” he said to Rodger.

Off-roading earns B.C. woman $400 fine

A British Columbia woman was slapped with a $400 fine for driving her vehicle off-road along a pipeline right-of-way last fall.

Jeanette Raquel Ovens admitted to driving more than a kilometre along the pipeline route on Sept. 28, 2011, because she was looking for a place away from the main highway where she could run her dog.

“She’s from B.C.,” said defence attorney Laurie Rodger. “For her it’s normal to pull of the road in this situation.”

A resource conservation officer spotted the vehicle tracks, followed them for 1.3 kilometres and found Ovens and the vehicle.

The Crown sought a $500 fine for the offence, arguing that a stiff penalty is needed as a deterrent because when people drive off-road like this the tracks they leave encourage others to do the same. 

Judge Vaughn Myers decided on a $400 fine but agreed with that argument.

“The more the route becomes well known or well marked the more people go on it,” he said.

$2,300 in fines for driving on creek beds

Driving off-road and across channels of the Sunwapta River last summer earned one man a total of $2,300 in fines.

Court heard that Shawn Sikorski was spotted driving about a kilometre off of Highway 93 on Sept. 3, 2011, in a sensitive, sub-alpine area. The vehicle tracks crossed creek beds near the Sunwapta River.

The Crown requested a $2,000 fine for the offence but the defence argued Sikorski had simply made a mistake and didn’t realize he was still within the boundaries of Jasper National Park when he took his vehicle off road.

“He’s a responsible citizen normally and simply made an error here,” defence attorney Laurie Rodger said, adding that the largest fines he’s seen previously for similar offences are only $700 or $800.

Judge Vaughn Myers sided with the Crown.

“The national park boundaries, I find, are very well demarcated,” he said. “There’s no reason to be driving through a creek bed.”

Myers issued a $2,000 fine and $300 victim fine surcharge.

Impaired crash a ‘lesson learned’

A man who collided with a semi truck on Highway 16 after drinking “six to seven” beers at a golf tournament earlier in the day pleaded guilty to impaired driving and received nearly $1,400 in fines.

Jason Jerome Carter described the Sept. 19, 2011 incident – which sent him to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries – as “a major lesson learned.”

Court heard that, on that day, a witness observed Carter driving aggressively and eventually, when he swerved his vehicle into the eastbound lane, he collided with a semi truck. The driver of the semi was not injured, but Carter’s car was destroyed and he was taken to hospital.

Carter pleaded guilty and expressed remorse in court.

Judge Vaughn Myers issued him a $1,200 fine and $180 victim fine surcharge.

‘Reasonable doubt’ leads to assault acquittal

A Jasper man accused of physically attacking his on-again, off-again girlfriend was acquitted of an assault charge, but still ordered to enter into a one-year recognizance to be of good behaviour and have no contact with the woman.

Judge Vaughn Myers placed the conditions on 33-year-old Domenic Nicola Venchiarutti after acquitting him of the assault charge, saying he didn’t believe Venchiarutti’s testimony but found reasonable doubt when it came to the events of July 3, 2011.

Venchiarutti and his ex-girlfriend, Ashley Joyce Briggs, told the court conflicting stories about what happened that night.

Briggs testified that she had gone over to Venchiarutti’s house between 11 p.m. and 11:15 p.m., bringing him a pizza because he had said he was hungry. When she arrived, she testified that he was heavily intoxicated, refused the food she had brought and said he wanted to go out to eat instead. After she refused to go out, Briggs claimed he attacked her.

“Next thing you know, I’m thrown up against the wall by my neck,” she told the court.

Briggs testified that she resisted the much larger man and, during the struggle, he threw her over a chair and at one point had both hands around her neck. Eventually, she told the court that she broke free and fled the house, with Venchiarutti giving chase. She said he gave up after she screamed as she ran for the nearby alley.

Venchiarutti, however, testified that it was Briggs who attacked him. He told the court she showed up at the house between 10:15 and 10:30 p.m. and was noticeably intoxicated when she arrived. He testified that, when Briggs saw a woman’s coat on a kitchen chair, she took it as a sign that he was cheating on her and flew into a rage, throwing a coffee mug at him but missing.

Venchiarutti, who admitted being under the influence of alcohol at the time but not excessively intoxicated, testified that he then grabbed Briggs’ arm but said it was only because she had come at him, swinging.

“She was kneeing me, kicking me,” he told the court.

While Briggs testified that Venchiarutti physically prevented her from leaving the house, Venchiarutti said just the opposite, telling the court that all he wanted was for her to leave but she refused.

After she eventually exited the house, both Briggs and Venchiarutti agreed that he sent her several text and voicemail messages, at least one of which said he was planning to file charges against her for damaging his oven door.

Briggs told the court that, the next morning, July 4, she called Venchiarutti’s mother to talk about the alleged oven damage. Venchiarutti’s mother described a similar conversation in her own testimony. Both women said the conversation was cut short when Venchiarutti walked into his mother’s house that morning.

The next day, July 5, Briggs went to the RCMP and filed a complaint. Venchiarutti was later arrested on the assault charge.

The defence questioned why it took Briggs two days to go to the police and suggested her complaint may have been an attempt to pre-empt a criminal complaint she believed might be coming against her. The defence further argued that Venchiarutti’s version of events was more plausible than Briggs’.

The Crown, however, contended that Briggs’ testimony was “very forthright throughout” and noted her story about the phone conversation the morning of July 4 was consistent with the testimony provided by Venchiarutti’s mother. The young woman’s version of events was the more plausible one, the Crown argued, and only conflicted with the testimony from Venchiarutti, himself.

In the end, the judge said he didn’t believe Venchiarutti’s version of events but, when considering the case as a whole, there was “reasonable doubt” of his guilt.

Due in particular to the fact that it took two days for the police complaint to be filed and there being “no independent evidence of injuries” to Briggs, Myers acquitted Venchiarutti but ordered him to undertake the one-year recognizance.