Judge rules handcuffs violated rights

A Saskatoon man has been acquitted of refusing to provide a breath sample after a judge ruled that his fundamental rights were violated when police officers handcuffed him before he was arrested or charged with a crime.

The case stems from an earlymorning incident in March when police responded to a report of a possible impaired driver at the John G. Diefenbaker International Airport, and found Kevin Latzkowski asleep behind the wheel of his vehicle.

After demanding he exit the vehicle, one police officer handcuffed Latzkowski “for officer safety” and then made multiple attempts to obtain a breath sample, which either failed or were refused, according to provincial court Judge Barry Morgan’s written decision.

While it is common for police to handcuff suspected impaired drivers, the officer in this case did so without “ascertaining any facts that would justify such an action,” which is “objectively unreasonable,” Morgan wrote.

Latzkowski ultimately spent 16 minutes in handcuffs before he was arrested and charged with refusing to provide a sample.

After determining Latzkowski suffered a “significant deprivation” of liberty, Morgan concluded that the infringement of his rights outweighed officer safety and society ’s expectation that criminal charges be dealt with on their merits.

“I find that it is necessary to exclude the (post-handcuffing) evidence … There being no evidence to determine that the defendant committed the offence with which he is charged, I find him not guilty,” Morgan wrote in the decision handed down earlier this month.

Prince Albert lawyer Peter Abrametz, who represented Latzkowski, said in an email that the judge “very carefully weighed the sometimes competing interests” at play in the case, and “arrived at the appropriate conclusion.”

“The Crown respectfully disagrees with some of the judge’s reasoning, and that will be argued in court,” said Crown prosecutor Tamara Denluck, adding that she plans to file a notice of appeal later this month.