One question we are often asked is why we defend drunk driving cases. As lawyers we take on all sorts of different cases, from serious drug charges to personal injury cases, the occasional contract dispute and discipline proceedings when a professional is facing sanctions from a regulatory body. But more than anything we defend driving matters, and many drunk driving cases, i.e. DUIs. And there are reasons for that. For me there is a specific reason.
In 1984 I was a teenager and for a few months I lived at 14232 Ravine Drive in Edmonton. One warm evening I was sitting outside with my mom and her husband when a car drove past the end of the street onto the grass just beyond our yard. The car then backed up over a retaining wall leaving the rear wheels in the air. The vehicle was stranded.
We were sitting on the patio and we heard what happened. I peeked through the bushes. The driver was still in the driver’s seat revving the engine. I assumed he was drunk.
I called to report a drunk driver and within a few minutes members of the Edmonton Police arrived. My mom’s husband suggested that I find a good hiding place to watch the action. My mom didn’t think it was a good idea. So I crouched down and scooted across the yard, around the fish pond and found a good viewing location under a bush.
When I found my spot the officers were still in their cruiser with the emergency lights on. Moments later they approached the driver who, as I recall, was slumped over the steering wheel. One of the first officers on scene opened the driver’s door and yanked the driver out of the car. The suspect landed on the ground and the officer pushed him with his foot so that the suspect was face down onto the ground.
Another police cruiser then arrived. My recollection is that there were then four officers on the scene. At least one was a pretty blond female. Two were male. I can’t remember the gender of the last police officer. What happened next is burnt in my memory.
Of course, at 16 I thought it would be cool to help the police catch a bad guy. The officers who attended beat the suspect so badly that I have never been sure whether he survived. The suspect was laying on the ground by the drivers door when the officers began to kick him. They kicked him in his head several times and in the side of his stomach. He tried to get up on all fours and crawl away. They continued to kick him in the side. When he fell back to the ground they continued to beat him.
The pretty blond female officer was as brutal as the men. Don’t believe what anyone tells you if they claim that women are less sadistic than men. She kicked the suspect in the side many times, and clubbed him over the head with her flashlight.
After perhaps a minute, the suspect was on the ground and his breathing was laboured. One officer grabbed him by the back collar of his shirt and lifted him. He screamed at the suspect. He said “puke now – you’re not puking in my cruiser” and he repeatedly struck the suspect on the head with what appeared to be heavy flashlight.
I don’t know what happened to the suspect. I assume that he was arrested, there was a police report filled with lies and he was convicted. He may have died. I don’t know. At the time I was terrified that the police would see me laying on the ground nearby under a bush. They looked around menacingly as they beat the man. I was scared.
I told my family a little of what I’d seen. In Edmonton it was public knowledge that you didn’t cross the police. If you did, you’d be lucky if only your fingers were broken. Two times later in my teen years I was roughed up badly by police officers in Edmonton for no reason. The police were known to be thugs. I knew to keep what I saw to myself.
Still, I will never forget what I saw. As a lawyer I know that it’s possible that the suspect suffered from a medical condition. For example, he may have been diabetic or he may have been having a stroke. It’s possible that he had the flu. I assumed that he was a drunk driver, but I could have been mistaken. Regardless, however, the police response was to brutally beat the suspect and, without a doubt, to lie about what took place. I will never forget it.
I have read thousands of police reports and piles and piles of police documents since I began defending drunk driving cases back in 1999. In my time as a criminal defense lawyer, I have identified many occasions where the police have lied, withheld evidence, manufactured false evidence or been simply incompetent.
I regret that at 16 I was too frightened to take some action when I witnessed the police brutally beat a man. Retaliation by the police is a reasonable thing to fear.
I became a criminal defense lawyer because I feel an obligation to my fellow humans to try to protect us from bad government action and to correct wrongs. I am glad to say that this is something that we do on a daily basis.
Many people accused of committing an offence are innocent. More people are innocent than you might expect. Others, although not innocent, do not deserve the extra-judicial administrative punishment handed out by the police in the form of a beating, or some other violation of their Charter Rights.
These are some of the reasons why we defend drunk driving cases. And we defend drunk driving cases because at age 16 I was not able to protect this one individual from the police, after I called them to come.
Thanks again for reading our blog.
Cheers,
Paul