Making It Up

Repeat after Dr. Christ Natsis, 'prominent' Pembroke dentist: not guilty of dangerous and impaired driving causing death.  This is her defence.  She is unequivocally not guilty as charged.  And those who charged her with impairing driving causing the death of 50-year-old Bryan Casey on March 31, 2011 are quite simply wrong, persecuting an innocent person.

During the three-week-and-ongoing trial the Crown has called to the stand a number of witnesses.  All of whom have been utterly mistaken about what they observed at the scene of the impact of two vehicles travelling at full speed in opposite directions until the driver of one of the vehicles swerved into the path of the other.

One of the drivers was inebriated, but according to the lawyer engaged to represent Dr. Natsis, it was not his client.  Thus far all of the witnesses have described what they saw occur on that deadly night.  And at every turn what they saw might not have been what actually occurred, according to the defence attorney who cast aspersions on the reliability of their accounts.

Came the turn of yet another Ontario Provincial Police officer to testify and his statements which corroborated the impressions of previous witnesses paint a law-and-order-biased picture of a female driver identified as the charged, clearly under the influence of alcohol.  Not marginally, or merely suspected, but clearly as in obviously.

When Constable Ryan Besner arrived at the scene of the accident to which Dr. Natsis has pleaded not guilty, he was advised by another OPP officer that the woman driver of the black SUV was "drunk".  He made his way over to the woman whom he described as "swaying back and forth", made note of a "very strong" odour of alcohol - and arrested her.

Taking by surprise Constable David Dunfield who had arrived earlier and who had planned to have paramedics examine Dr. Natsis to determine whether her post-crash slurring and stumbling might have been related to any injury she might have sustained aside from a slight scrape to her leg.  Under the circumstances that pre-arrest examination did not take place.

The pavement was flat, the suspect wearing Nike running shoes, ruling out a possible other cause of physical instability.  Moreover, though it was dark, emergency-vehicle flashing lights gave off enough light to see Dr. Natsis eyes as being "red and glossy".  The offer of a breath analysis at the scene was refused by Dr. Natsis. 

And when a paramedic determined she was physically "fine" Dr. Natsis, "feeling stressed", asked to be taken to hospital.

She was incapable of carrying on a brief exchange of question-and-response with a paramedic.  But she did comment, "That man crossed the road in my car" to which statement Crown prosecutor John Ramsey asked Constable Besner whether the statement made any sense to him: "None whatsoever".  Obviously it made sense to her; a disclaimer of responsibility.

Dr. Natsis insisted on the services of a lawyer, refusing to respond to any questions about how much alcohol she had imbibed.  And Constable Besner accommodated her by contacting a lawyer whose name she had provided.  Who happens not to be the lawyer now representing Dr. Natsis. 

Another OPP officer, Amanda Carruthers, testified earlier that Dr. Natsis had informed her the lawyer to whom she had spoken for 40 minutes while at the hospital, was a friend.  Her testimony did not sit well with Dr. Natsis's current lawyer who responded, "They are not friends and never were friends."

To which OPP Constable Amanda Carruthers responded: "I didn't make that up".  She appeared unwilling to be categorized along with all the other witnesses as unreliable, speaking of events that occurred in their minds, not in reality.