Kristen Debra-Lee Spencer remains angry in spite of her stunning B.C. Supreme Court victory over the province’s draconian anti-drunk driving regime.
Since receiving a 90-day immediate roadside suspension last Oct. 31, Spencer has been outraged at how she was manhandled by police and forced to endure an expensive, painful ordeal that continues.
“It was the most insane situation I’ve ever been in,” she fumed.
“My rights were stomped on! This cost us $12,000 in legal fees and $7,000 in medical expenses plus I haven’t been able to work because of the injuries I sustained.”
A 37-year-old model and director of business development at Wild-Spirit.com, Spencer says it has been a Kafkaesque experience.
Last Halloween, she had been working at a charity event that she had organized. She was pulled over by the Langley RCMP moments after she left at about 5 a.m. while following one of the designated drivers she’d hired to ensure no one would be tempted to drink and drive.
The officer claimed that she said she had had a drink about an hour before and refused to blow. During their exchange, Spencer ended up on the ground with several injuries.
After the officer gave her the suspension, Spencer and her mother immediately left the scene and went to the local detachment, where she was refused a breathalyzer test. She said she never told the officer she had had a drink, and had a half dozen witnesses to support her. She even wrote to thensolicitor-general Rich Coleman, but no one listened until she got to the Supreme Court and won a week ago.
“The whole time I had no licence [because she refused to accept the three-month suspension],” she complained, “I was presumed guilty.
“I had to rely on my mom to get me to the many doctors’ appointments due to the injuries. If it wasn’t for my parents’ belief in me and their financial support, I would have never made it through this experience.”
She was confronted with misleading evidence, Spencer said, and a superintendent of motor vehicles adjudicator whom the Supreme Court slammed for bias.
She was unable to obtain the digital audio tape of her nearly two-hour encounter with the Langley Mounties and when her lawyer got a transcript, it covered only 15 minutes and most of her comments are “inaudible” except for a fragment, “seriously I did not drink [inaudible].”
Justice Mark McEwan issued a stinging rebuke, suggesting the province’s anti-drunk driving scheme is “seriously flawed” because of its unfair and arbitrary appeal process.
Meanwhile, Vancouver lawyer Paul Doroshenko, who has been battling the law since it was introduced, said Friday he has new evidence the handheld breath testing devices can’t be trusted.
He has been researching through freedom-of-information requests the reliability of approved screening devices.
Material disclosed by municipal departments and the RCMP earlier this year revealed major concerns about the way the units are used.
Doroshenko now has a letter from the Port Moody police department that indicates the officer calibrating the machines is not doing it properly.
“Every [immediate roadside suspension] issued in Port Moody over the last year should be in question,” he added. “The officer is probably trying to do it correctly. The problem is he is doing it incorrectly and the consequences are grave.”
The devices have been a focus of critics since the new, stricter regime came into effect Sept. 20, 2010 as an alternative to Criminal Code prosecutions that are expensive and require police to respect the Charter of Rights.
Thousands of British Columbians who received suspensions were angry to discover the appeal process is stacked against them.
Even more so when they learn that under the punitive regime, a 90-day suspension means roughly a $5,000 hit – for the responsible driver program they must attend, the interlock breath tester they must install on their car for a year, as well as towing, storage, relicensing and other charges.
Yet they’re not allowed to challenge the accuracy of the sample, the machine’s reliability or cross-examine the officer.
Drivers nabbed before 2,200 machines were recalled and recalibrated last November could not raise that as a defence.
“All [immediate roadside suspensions] issued in Port Moody should be cancelled and the money should be refunded,” Doroshenko said.
“The government should offer compensation. Many people will have lost their jobs due to the prohibition and interlock requirement. My hope is that the attorney-general will ensure this [improper calibration] isn’t happening all over the province.”