Impaired Driving – Identity Evidence

A Honda Civic was parked in an exit lane on the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, and one tire was shredded off.

Officer St. Clair of the Toronto Police spoke with the defendant who was sitting in a dark SUV near the Honda. After the police arrived the male driver of the SUV soon left the scene in the vehicle.

Officer St. Clair “inferred” from the circumstances that the defendant had been driving the Honda Civic.

The officer did not specifically ask the defendant if she had been driving, but it was implicit in the defendant’s answers to the officer’s questions that she had been driving.

The accused testified, however, that she had not been operating the Honda, but her boyfriend had been the driver. The two of them had been arguing and after the problem with the tire, her boyfriend stopped the vehicle, became very angry and walked away from the vehicle, leaving her at the scene.

The defendant said that her boyfriend would have been even angrier if she had told the police about his involvement, because he had reasons for avoiding the police.

The accused was charged with Impaired Driving Care and Control.

The police did not witness the driving.

There was no direct identity evidence to prove the accused was the actual driver of the vehicle.

The trial judge concluded that the mere fact that someone was left with the vehicle, is not evidence that the accused was actual driver and is guilty of impaired driving.

There was only one issue a trial. Whether the crown attorney had proved the identity evidence.

Had the crown proved that the accused had the care of control of the motor vehicle in question or whether she had been driving it.

As the trial progressed, it became apparent that “care or control” was not an issue, and the question was, whether the defendant had been driving the vehicle at all.

The judge stated that the accused’s testimony together with the corroborating evidence as given by her friend and her boyfriend, leaves a reasonable doubt in my mind as to whether the defendant was driving the vehicle.

As a result, the court believed that there was no identity evidence that that the accused had been the actual driver.  That there was a reasonable doubt, and subsequently there was finding of not guilty on both counts.

Case won by Toronto Criminal Lawyer Nicholas Charitsis

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