Chase ends with sentence of year in jail

Man plays hard to catch with four Tasers used by police

The only thing Robert Creighton lacked was a red and blue costume as he fled from police during a chase last month. Doing his best impression of Spider-Man, Creighton swung from balcony to balcony after police chased him from his girlfriend’s apartment July 24. Only after a lengthy foot chase and a lot of effort did Taser-wielding police finally bring him down.

“It took four Tasers and four cops to bring me down, but I’m ready to deal with it,” Creighton said Thursday in Lethbridge provincial court, where he pleaded guilty to several criminal charges, including assaulting and resisting a peace officer.

Crown prosecutor Lisa Weich said Creighton scrambled up and down balconies like Spider-Man as he tried to evade police when they came looking for him. Creighton was shot with a Taser gun four times during the chase, and each time he pulled the electrodes off himself, got up and ran away. Creighton was eventually caught, but not without consequences.

“He was very battered and bruised after his final arrest,” Lethbridge lawyer Vincent Guinan told court. “It was one hell of a battle.”

Creighton, 26, also pleaded guilty to charges of refusing to provide a breath sample, identity fraud, breach of probation, operating a motor vehicle while disqualified, assault with a weapon, and housebreaking/commit theft. He was sentenced to one year in jail for all the offences.

Weich told court Creighton, who had been prohibited from driving stemming from an impaired charge in 2014, was caught driving in August of last year. He refused to give police a suitable breath sample, and they discovered he was under restrictions from an earlier probation order prohibiting him from consuming alcohol. When questioned by police, he also gave them the name of a relative, which wasn’t discovered until later.

Then last month, while Creighton was at large, police received a call that he was causing problems at a residence where he had swung a two-by-four at a woman. He fled when a man at the residence intervened.

A couple of weeks later police were called again, this time from a woman who said her home had been broken into. The culprit had broken a bedroom window to get into the home, from which he stole a laptop computer and jewelry. Creighton was identified from his fingerprints found at the scene.

The very next day he was finally caught during the police chase where he was Tasered four times after fleeing his girlfriend’s apartment.

Weich pointed out Creighton has a lengthy criminal record including convictions for domestic violence, aggravated assault, impaired driving and obstructing a peace officer.

Guinan explained his client, whose sixth child is due to be born soon, was “on the run for a significant time” before he was finally caught. And after being Tasered four times, he was actually relieved the chase was over.

In addition to his jail sentence, Creighton has been prohibited from driving for three years. He must also submit a sample of his DNA for the National DNA Databank.