Provincial court judge charged with impaired driving

An Edmonton provincial court judge was charged Thursday night with impaired driving.

Judge Paul Gordon Sully, 75, was pulled over at a Checkstop near Calgary Trail and 55th Avenue, Edmonton police said.

“Judges, prosecutors, defence lawyers, they’re all human, they all do things other people do,” Greg Lepp, head of the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service, told a news conference Friday.

“It is a matter of concern when a judge is charged with an offence. But … it’s very important for the public to keep in mind that like any person charged with an offence, he’s innocent until proven guilty.”

Earlier this year, Sully retired from being a full-time judge, but he still sits on the bench on a part-time basis.

In March, he was named a supernumerary, or parttime judge, for a term that was set to expire April 25, 2016. In April, Sully turned 75 and reached the mandatory retirement age for provincial judges.

However, Sully will not continue as a judge while his case is before the courts, said Chief Judge Terry Matchett of the provincial court of Alberta. “Judge Sully will not be presiding as a judge of the provincial court pending the outcome of these outstanding charges,” Matchett said in a statement Friday afternoon.

Sully was charged with one count each of impaired driving and operating a motor vehicle with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit.

The Edmonton prosecutor’s office is waiting to receive the police file on Sully’s case, Lepp said. The case will then be handed to a prosecutor from Saskatchewan to handle.

Sully, who began his legal career in the 1960s, was appointed to the bench in November 1998.