16. Regina v. A.S.G. [Provincial Court of Alberta, Calgary – November 2013]

Charged with impaired driving and over 0.08. Police observed ASG strike a concrete medium and then return to its lane of travel. The police stopped ASG, detected a strong odour of alcohol and demanded that he provide samples of his breath for roadside analysis – result “fail”. The police arrested ASG, escorted him to the police station and obtained two samples of his breath into the intoxilyzer with readings well in access of the legal limit. Patrick Fagan entered pleas of not guilty and scheduled a trial. Bottom Line: Through cross examination of the primary investigating officer Patrick Fagan was able to neutralize the evidence germane to the impaired driving charge (resulting in a verdict of not guilty) and sought the exclusion of the blood/alcohol results as a consequence of the violation of ASG’s constitutional right to a lawyer. Trial judge ruled that ASG’s right to counsel had been violated and excluded the blood alcohol analysis. A verdict of not guilty was entered on the charge of 0.08 as well.