Someone Is At Fault

"As OPP officers, we don't try to go out and get people. I mean, it's up to the court to decide guilt or innocence. We just present the facts as we see them. That's what the implication is here, that we're out to get somebody, and that's not the intention at all."
OPP Constable Shawn Kelly

Const.Kelly is a 27-year veteran with the Ontario Provincial Police. He is a professional law officer. It is his duty in the pursuit of his public-service profession to uphold the law and see to it to the best of his ability that the public is protected, to act neutrally, and respond to the facts of any particular case. He was the official collision investigator when Pembroke dentist Christy Natsis caused a fatal accident on Highway 17 in 2011.

All the witnesses to the accident - and there were many - including the arrival of first responders, both highway police and paramedics - derived the unmistakable impression from long experience and close observation that the woman driving the 2010 Ford Expedition was clearly under the influence of alcohol. Her speech slurred, her eyes betraying her condition, her inability to stand upright and walk normally.

This case of impaired driving, driving with a blood-alcohol over the legal limit and dangerous driving, all causing death, which Ms. Natsis has pleaded not guilty to, seems like what can be called and open-and-shut one. What it does also appear to represent, given the clear and obvious evidence taken at the crash scene and the narrative of witnesses, is the option given to those with money to purchase the avails of clever lawyers.

While Ms. Natsis appears to represent someone with a compromised conscience, she is well paired with a lawyer whose morals sit somewhat askew, skilled at manipulating facts to better suit his version of truth. His belligerent, insulting and somewhat slanderous claims and innuendos in questioning witnesses speak to his character, and hers, both. A well-remunerated lawyer gaming the law while sanctimoniously claiming his client is being deliberately held to be guilty sans proof.

"Your bias was patent in this case, obvious, and you were most concerned about eliminating any opportunity to blame Mr. Casey for the accident in any way", lawyer Michael Edelson put to Const. Kelly. "That is not correct, sir", responded Const. Kelly, the very model of calm civility, in contrast to the obvious contempt in which his testimony and his intentions are held by the defence.

The issue of the blood alcohol level of Bryan Casey who was killed when Ms. Natsis' vehicle crossed into the oncoming lane and hit him head on, even though he attempted evasive action, and she did not, was one that the defence lawyer returns to time and again. Mr. Casey appeared in control of his vehicle with 1.5-times the legal limit of alcohol, while Ms. Natsis obviously was not in control of hers, with 2.5-times the legal limit of alcohol in her blood.

These are facts. As was the physical evidence at the scene, including the clues that were inspected by Const.Kelly to lead him to be convinced of what had transpired, and accordingly to place Ms. Natsis under arrest. "(The information) had nothing to do with any report whatsoever, it had to do with insulating Mr. Casey from being at fault in this accident because you had already concluded that it was all the fault of Dr. Natsis", the lawyer tersely accused the OPP officer.

"You were a partisan, particularly in investigating and advocating against her and in favour of Mr. Casey".  
"I disagree", responded Const.Kelley; a calm, logical rejoinder.

Const.Kelly's report had concluded that "the cause of the collision is a result of the action/inaction and/or the condition of the driver of the Ford Expedition. There had to have been some type of condition for the driver to be where she was, otherwise she would have been in her own lane."

"The opinion that I formed is who is at fault in the accident. It's not up to me to say that she was guilty. It was my opinion to say where the accident occurred, who the drivers of the vehicle were, whereabouts (sic) that accident occurred, and if it occurred left of centre or right of centre of a highway.
"Obviously someone is at fault, someone's in the wrong."