Failing to play nicely with the law did not land Ahmed Al-Mustapha behind bars, but he does have some personal work to do before he is in the clear.
The 22-year-old Edmonton man was handed a conditional sentence in St. Albert court Monday with one year of probation, which includes anger management assessments, treatments and counselling, after pleading guilty to resisting arrest and causing a disturbance.
The charges stem from Mustapha falling prey to a speed trap in St. Albert on Sept. 5, 2009.
Clocked in at 78 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, the man was signalled to pull over. Crown prosecutor John Donahoe explained in court that after attempting, and failing, to make an impromptu U-turn, Mustapha instead decided to roll down his window and yell at the officer.
He claimed he was not speeding, and refused to hand over his documents.
“Because the driver was failing to follow directions, backup was called,” continued Donahoe. “There’s four more officers involved and he still refused to get out of the vehicle.”
St. Albert RCMP struggled with Mustapha, through the car’s window, having to pepper spray him to bring him under control.
He continued berating the Mounties all the way to cells.
Donahoe jumped to a Nov. 23. 2010 incident, when Mustapha was in the St. Albert courthouse, “in this very courtroom” to fight that $166 speeding ticket, and found himself in the company of his arresting officer.
“Mr. Mustapha started talking loudly,” said Donahoe.
Comments such as “You’re ruining my life” escalated to “You better never take off that uniform” before the irate man was escorted out. He came back in and was arrested and charged for a second time.
Prior to Monday’s guilty pleas, this man had absolutely no criminal record.
“Rarely have I seen a set of circumstances where a person will be this abusive to police,” said Donahoe.
“It is something of a bizarre set of circumstances — my hope is this is the last we’ll see of him here,” said Don MacPherson, defence attorney. “But this isn’t something that will just disappear — he’s going to have to earn it.”
Judge Bruce Garriock agreed, calling the incidents a complete failure to respect the law.
“[The police] have got a difficult enough job without having these sorts of antics shoved into their faces,” he said.
