A St. Albert man with a history of evading police will spending the next 60 days behind bars after driving with a disqualified licence.
Kenneth David Belair, 22, pleaded guilty via closed-circuit television from the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre to driving with a disqualified licence and failing to appear in court.
Crown prosecutor John Donahoe said the vehicle Belair was driving was pulled over on Nov. 27 at roughly 10:15 p.m. on Ray Gibbon Drive near 137 Avenue. He initially provided police with a false name, but later came clean about his identity.
“(He did that) for obvious reasons: he didn’t have a licence,” Donahoe said, adding Belair lost his license for a two-year period about one month prior, when he was convicted for the second time of a criminal flight from police. His first conviction stemmed from 2011.
Donahoe was seeking 90 days imprisonment.
“He’d just been suspended and he (was) back out and driving again,” he said. “He doesn’t listen to police; he doesn’t listen to the courts.”
Lawyer Zane Pocha, acting on behalf of Belair’s lawyer Laurie Wood, was seeking a 60-day sentence behind bars, to be served intermittently on weekends.
“I want to better myself,” Belair said. “I will stay away from cars because I do want a licence some day,” he said.
Judge Norman Mackie sentenced Belair to 60 days behind bars to be served consecutively, in addition to a one-year driving prohibition and $100 fine for failing to appear in court Jan. 7.
“Your cracked record of paying attention to court-ordered conduct has been not good,” Mackie said.
Donahoe withdrew two additional charges for obstructing a peace officer and possession of an illegal substance.
A St. Albert man took matters into his own hands to end his alcohol-fueled crimes.
Jodi Dennis Verheyden pleaded guilty in St. Albert Provincial Court to having a blood-alcohol concentration exceeding the legal limit of 0.08.
Donahoe told the court that Verheyden backed his vehicle into another car in the parking lot of O’Maille’s Irish Pub in St. Albert on Nov. 16, 2011. Police located the vehicle a short time later and found Verheyden with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.210.
Prior to sentencing, Verheyden enrolled himself into a two-month treatment program, in addition to attending regular Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, in an effort to address his chronic drinking problem.
“I really had no choice. It was getting out of hand,” he said, adding he drank “hardcore” for roughly 20 years. “It was life or death.”
The treatment was not court-ordered and came with a price tag of $26,000.
“I’m appalled at that behaviour,” Verheyden said. “I will never touch a drop of alcohol again as long as I live.”
Verheyden was convicted Aug. 30 for driving with a blood-alcohol concentration exceeding the legal limit.
He received the minimum $1,150 fine and a one-year driving prohibition. He was also placed on 18 months probation and was ordered to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, abstain from drugs and alcohol, provide samples to a police officer upon suspicion of consuming alcohol, attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and take counseling as directed by a probation officer.
Donahoe withdrew two additional charges for impaired operation of a motor vehicle and failing to stop at the scene of an accident.
Devin James Demuin, 22, pleaded guilty via closed-circuit television from the Edmonton Remand Centre to unlawful possession of liquor.
The offence, under the Gaming and Liquor Act, nets an automatic $230 fine.
No facts were read into the court record regarding the offence.
Instead of paying the $230 fine, Demuin opted instead to spend two days behind bars.
