A woman pulled over in a stolen car who refused a breathalyser test was sentenced to jail time and fines on Monday.
Gloria Mildred Gladue, 39, pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property and refusing to provide a breathalyser sample on Feb. 8 stemming from an incident in Oct. 2008.
Gladue received seven days in jail on the stolen property charge, a $1,000 fine and a one-year driving ban for refusing to provide a sample.
Police received multiple 911 calls from drivers on St. Albert Trail around 9 a.m. on Oct. 28, 2008 reporting a vehicle being driven erratically, weaving across lanes and speeding.
When they pulled the vehicle over, three people immediately jumped out. Gladue, the driver, admitted the car was stolen.
Officers smelled a slight odour of alcohol on her breath and demanded a sample, but Gladue made one half-hearted attempt before giving up and refusing.
Gladue has been in custody at the Edmonton Remand Centre since her arrest on robbery charges in Edmonton. While her seven-day sentence on her St. Albert charges was entirely covered by that pre-trial time, she will not be released until the robbery charges are dealt with.
The car, while stolen, had been taken from someone she knew.
A woman facing her second conviction for impaired driving was spared jail time by an oversight but still slapped with a heavy fine.
Lynn Margarete Zettler pleaded guilty to one count of impaired driving on Feb. 8 and was handed an $1,800 fine, a $270 victim surcharge and a two-year driving prohibition.
Zettler was spotted northbound on St. Albert Trail around 10 p.m. on Oct. 16 last year. The driver behind her noticed she was slow to get going when a light turned green, stopped at times halfway through an intersection and was weaving all over the road.
The driver behind her called police and continued to follow her until the RCMP arrived and saw her nearly clip two separate vehicles after turning off the Trail into a residential area.
Police pulled up behind her just as she was pulling into her home and confronted her as she got out of her vehicle. Officers detected a strong odour of alcohol. When she was tested back at the detachment, she blew over the legal limit.
Zettler was a suspended driver at the time with a previous conviction for impaired driving and driving while disqualified.
Under the Criminal Code, a second conviction for impaired driving usually requires a 30-day jail sentence. The Crown prosecutor has to present a notice to the accused that they intend to bring up their previous record before the trial.
In this case, Scott Pittman had provided that notice, but had worked out a plea arrangement with defence lawyer Gary Smith prior to seeing the notice was there and declined to offer it to the court.
Judge Jeanne Burch was still able to send Zettler to jail, but instead put the high fines in place. Burch did impose a two-year driving prohibition and she cautioned Zettler the province would probably make her wait at least three years before reissuing a license.
A woman who crashed into three vehicles in the St. Albert Dodge parking lot pleaded guilty to impaired driving this week, but alcohol had nothing to do with it.
On Feb. 8 Tijana Sabic, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of impaired driving and was fined almost $1,500.
On Nov. 7, 2008, Sabic was behind the wheel of a BMW SUV when she pulled into the parking lot of St. Albert Dodge and struck a vehicle. While trying to back up she managed to hit two more.
When employees approached the vehicle and checked to see if she was unhurt, they smelled a strong odour of marijuana coming from the vehicle and when police arrived they found the remains of a joint in the cup holder.
Sabic also received a one-year driving prohibition. Ordinarily drivers convicted of impaired driving are granted the ability to join the ignition interlock program after three months. The program allows prohibited drivers to drive vehicles with a device requiring them to blow a clean sample into a monitor before the car starts.
Judge Jeanne Burch, told Sabic she had no problem with her applying to the program, but was not sure a device could be set up for her kind of impairment.
A man down on his luck who stole a camera from a local business two years ago was sentenced to the time he had already served.
Glen Harvey Harper, 36, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of stolen property and one count of failure to appear in court on Feb. 8 and received a 30-day sentence.
Harper was one of two men the store manager spotted leaving the Staples Business Depot store on Dec. 8 with something hidden in their coats. The store manager confronted them and while one man handed over what he had taken, Harper fled the scene with a camera under his jacket.
Police were called. Based on the descriptions provided they found the two men a short distance away.
The officers who found the pair had also sent them away from an apartment building entrance earlier that day.
The camera was valued at a little over $150.
