"Flagrant and Intentional"

One is permitted to muse; perhaps first responders like police officers working the highway detail as the Ontario Provincial Police do, and ambulances arriving, sirens blazing with paramedics prepared to view the worst and do their best, when coming upon yet another scene of road carnage caused by people who believe themselves entitled to drink to inebriation and then drive regardless, are capable of assessing the situation and taking immediate remedial action.

On the part of the paramedics immediate action is always required to save a life. Other than those situations when there is nothing they can do, the victim has expired, or will do so en route to the nearest hospital. On the part of the responding police, immediate action would result in securing the presence of the individual whose driving while intoxicated has taken the life of another human being, ensuring that they do their part to see to it that the person in custody pays the penalty for endangering the public.

Paramedics require familiarity with a certain level of first-response medical procedures to make certain that their ministrations to the injured are as effective as possible, as a critical interim measure in attempting to save the life or limbs of those affected. Police, on the other hand, require familiarity with securing a situation to ensure that no further harm results from it, and to swiftly assess what has occurred, for the purpose of law enforcement and justice.

An intimate knowledge of the law to a certain degree that fits the circumstances in which police work is an additional requirement. Ontario Court Justice Neil Kozloff, in weighing the arguments brought before him by the Crown and the defence attorney in the trial of Pembroke dentist Christy Natsis has decided in his wisdom and deciphering of the law that the arresting officer, Const. Ryan Besner's 'breach of her rights' left him no option but to exclude statements made to the police, along with breath evidence.

That evidence being the result of breathalyzer tests indicating that this 48-year-old woman had a blood-alcohol level two-and a-half times the legal limit, following the crash caused when she veered into the opposite oncoming lane and hit the vehicle of 50-year-old Bryan Casey, killing him on March 31, 2011, on Highway 17 near Arnprior.  The breath samples read 209 mg of alcohol per 100 mL of blood and 198 mg of alcohol per 100 mL of blood.

Excluded now, at the discretionary judgement of Justice Kozloff. Because the 40-minute conversation that Ms. Natsis had undertaken with her lawyer over the telephone that took place in the bathroom of the hospital to which he had taken her at her insistence, was interrupted on six occasions, the last being at the end of 40 minutes, when he declared that she had had ample time to conclude the conversation. After which he had directed her to a doctor who had administered the breath samples.

By opening the bathroom door repeatedly, to determine the state of the telephone conversation, and of Ms. Natsis, according to her defence lawyer, and to which Justice Kozloff had concurred, and finally judging that 40 minutes was ample time for the lawyer to convey to his client the instructions he wished her to follow, it was held that Const. Besner had breached the inebriated woman's Constitutional rights.

The Judge had also reached the conclusion that Const. Besner had lacked reasonable and probable grounds to arrest  Ms. Natsis, though it alone hadn't presented sufficient reason to toss out the breath evidence; the arrest of the consultation between client and lawyer evidently did present as sufficient reason. Constitutional rights may not be abridged without penalty, under any circumstances. That Bryan Casey's Constitutional and human right to life, liberty and happiness had been truncated does not supercede the rights of the individual who caused his death.

"I find that none of the interruptions were for a purpose relating to the well-being of Dr. Natsis. I find that Besner was concerned that the longer the process of solicitor-client consultation went on, the longer the taking of breath samples from Dr. Natsis would be delayed and the lower the readings would be", pronounced the judge. These are obviously valid concerns in the pursuit of justice, but held by the interpretation of the judge to be of sufficient gravity to invalidate vital evidence.

Justice Kozloff's critique of the manner in which Const. Besner conducted himself during this unfortunate incident did not stop there. He was held to have overstepped his authority by questioning the driver about the amount of alcohol she had consumed that evening. Furthermore, the judge found that Const. Besner had acted with "inappropriate haste" in the manner in which he handled the impaired driving investigation.

That he did not believe Const. Besner had witnessed Ms. Natsis swaying back and forth with red, glossy eyes and a strong alcohol odour emanating from her breath before taking her under arrest.

This, despite that other officers at the scene -- whose testimony reporting that they had witnessed a heavily intoxicated-impaired, glassy eyed, slurred-speech woman who had difficulty holding herself erect and walking normally, and had the unmistakable odour of alcohol permeating her presence, described just that -- and the justice had accepted their testimony.

A casual reader-of-the-news, appalled by the carnage on the road, caused by alcohol-impaired drivers who feel no compunction about getting behind the wheel of their vehicles, feeling it is their right to do so, and in so doing imperilling the lives of others, might feel that Ms. Natsis has morally abrogated her "Constitutional" rights in acting in such a blatantly illegal and dangerous manner.

More, that the reports coming from all observer sources that she imperiously demanded personal attention, while being seen to be herself uninjured - and while knowing that her actions had caused the death of another person, pretty well described the attitude of someone who is wholly self-absorbed while engaging in criminal activities, and completely disinterested in the carnage she has created. Actions and an attitude that cry out for justice.