Car crime nets federal time
KELOWNA — Ryan Regan twice used his prison-issue red T-shirt to wipe his eyes and nose as he cried while the judge read a sentence Monday ordering time in federal jail.
Regan, one of two men arrested in a police takedown on the William R. Bennett Bridge on Jan. 12 following a car chase from Penticton, was seeking a two-years-less-aday sentence so he could serve the time at the provincial prison in Oliver and continue drug and mental-health rehabilitation there.
Instead, his sentence, passed by Judge Cathie Heinrichs, ended up being three years, less time served to reflect his custody in Oliver since the Jan. 12 arrest.
While the sentence was passed in Courtroom 6 at the Kelowna Law Courts, Regan, 33, appeared via video from the Okanagan Correctional Centre.
While he wasn’t in the courtroom in person, his breakdown on video was still difficult to watch.
Regan and his lawyer wanted the lesser sentence, and continued time at the prison in Oliver, for several reasons.
In the five months Regan has been at the Oliver jail, he has enrolled in drug and mental-health rehabilitation and is seeing results.
Regan suffers with depression and was a methamphetamine addict at the time of his arrest.
He is from Oliver and his family can visit him there.
In his tearful plea to the judge after his sentencing, Regan pointed out he’d been to federal prison twice before and didn’t get the drug and mental-health rehab he needed.
In fact, he said he continued to use drugs while in the federal system.
He was also able to wear street clothes, play video games and hit the gym.
In the Oliver jail, he’s sober, wears the red-shirt-and-pants uniform and is in an intense, supervised drug-and-mental-health program.
Heinrichs said she felt compelled to pass the harsher sentence because of Regan’s long criminal record and him not being deterred by previous shorter sentences.
“I do wish you well,” the judge told Regan.
“I hope you take leadership and seek out rehab in the federal system.”
On the morning of Jan. 12, Penticton police first spotted Regan and Michael Dennison, 25, in what appeared to be a stolen green Oldsmobile without valid insurance.
Regan had just come out of a known drug house.
As the officers approached the car, it took off. The police initially gave chase, but then stopped and called the RCMP in West Kelowna and Kelowna to ask for help as the car was headed that way.
Initially, Dennison was driving. Somewhere along the way, Regan got behind the wheel.
At a roadblock police set up at Highway 97 and the Glenrosa turnoff, the Oldsmobile rammed through two police cars and narrowly missed hitting an officer.
In the 14 kilometres from Glenrosa to the William R. Bennett Bridge, police cars, lights and sirens going, chased the Oldsmobile as it wove in and out of traffic, evaded a spike belt, jumped curbs and zig-zagged off the highway several times at Hoskins, Butt, Elk, Bartley and Boucherie roads.
On the Bennett Bridge, the Oldsmobile sideswiped several other vehicles. At one point, a police car caught up to the Olds, which then rammed the police car in reverse and crumpled its hood.
The driver of a semi-trailer truck saw police were trying to stop the Oldsmobile and pulled his rig across the two lanes of traffic so the car was finally trapped.
Police drew their guns and called for Regan and Dennison to put their hands up. When they didn’t, police broke the windows to unlock the car, haul Regan and Dennison out and arrest them.
Dennison, who doesn’t have as lengthy a criminal record as Regan, was previously sentenced to 75 days in jail for dangerous driving, 30 days for breach of probation, one day for driving while disqualified, along with a two-year driving prohibition and $500 fine.
In addition to his three-year sentence, Regan is also prohibited from driving for three years once he gets out of jail.