Revelations, Vital and Otherwise

"I've worked in emergency rooms for twelve years, including the Ottawa Hospital every Saturday night for almost the past twelve years.  I can smell alcohol.
"I thought getting her to walk a straight line was police business."
Dr. Joseph Caytak, Ottawa Hospital General Campus emergency room doctor

The trial of Pembroke dentist Christy Natsis is now into its fourth week of testimony and cross-examination.  Ms. Natsis's lawyer had hinted earlier in the trial that the victim in the vehicle crash on Highway 7 on March 31, 2011, Bryan Casey, had a blood alcohol level above the legal limit.  His client has denied responsibility in the untimely death of Mr. Casey, pleading not guilty to charges of impaired driving causing death, driving with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit causing death, and dangerous driving causing death.

And her lawyer, Michael Edelson, is doing everything empowered through his professional experience to have her acquitted of those charges.  He is less than pleased that the readings of blood-alcohol levels relating to his client have been permitted to be publicly aired during the trial, perhaps less reluctant that the man she is accused of killing through her negligent decision to drive severely impaired, has had his blood-alcohol level reading revealed to the jury.

One of the OPP investigating officers, the one who had undertaken to arrest Ms. Natsis and who assisted in her search for a lawyer to represent her, had discovered that Mr. Casey might have been drinking the night of the accident.  Const. Ryan Besner, however, had testified on a previous occasion that he felt there was adequate evidence on the highway pointing to Dr. Natsis travelling west, had crossed into the eastbound lane to strike Mr. Casey's truck head on.

Most of the detritus that resulted from that disastrous crash was located in the eastbound lane.  The officer testified that Dr. Natsis was unable to balance herself normally and required assistance to stand upright, that her breath reeked from alcohol, a condition that was verified by others at the scene.  The OPP breath technician who administered the breathalyzer test at the hospital, Joseph Limlaw, testified there was 211 mg. of alcohol per 100 mL of blood several hours following the accident.

Const. Limlaw described his encounter with an "aggressive" suspect, a woman with bloodshot, glassy eyes and a distinct odour of breath alcohol, swaying from front to back.  The emergency room doctor who examined both Ms. Natsis and the swiftly expiring Mr. Casey, noted no unusual gait, nor eye condition; elucidating that he was watching for signs of limping or injury possibly sustained in the accident by Ms. Natsis, not alcohol impairment.

He testified that Ms. Natsis had informed him she had not been drinking, but she refused to agree to take a urine test.  The emergency room medic was busy tending to the mortally injured Mr. Casey.  "He was a man who was dying in front of our eyes", he testified; the man's stomach steadily expanding from the massive injuries he had sustained leading to internal bleeding.  From him, Dr. Caytak could detect no odour of alcohol.

The accused's lawyer pressed the medical doctor on that issue: "So if a person is consuming alcohol or has consumed alcohol and they are bleeding significantly into their abdominal cavity, that blood is leaving their system, correct?"  "Correct", corroborated Dr. Caytak.  "And if you are replacing it with fresh blood, presumably not alcohol-laden blood, fresh blood is going into the system, correct?"  "Correct" was the response.

Does an infusion of fresh blood obliterate the odour of alcohol emanating from an individual's mouth?  This is a clever, well-practised lawyer whose legal fees do not come cheap.  Sometimes you do get what you pay for.  There is, in fact, a precedent for the well-heeled to evade such charges; not necessarily in the case of former Newfoundland premier Brian Tobin's son, where the evidence of drunk driving was sufficient to hit him with a three-year sentence for causing the death of his best friend.

But he was out in seven months on day parole; not much of a penalty for willfulness causing the death of a  young man.  That Jack Tobin was contrite and miserable over the death of his friend is undeniable.  On the other hand, Margaret Trudeau lauded the Charter of Rights and Freedoms enacted by her husband for guiding her acquittal due to a judge ruling her rights had been violated by police with no grounds to stop her and deny her 'the right to counsel', and the impaired driving charge was not pursued.


In this case, the defending counsel means to mount a challenge on the basis of several critical-to-his-case points; taking issue with the determination that his client was suffering under the influence of alcohol, and charging that the arresting police officer denied her her full rights to legal counsel, by 'cutting off' an initial call to a lawyer that had already lasted 40 minutes under trying circumstances.