‘Road rage happened’: OPP sergeant found guilty of assault in Cambridge

KITCHENER — “What happened?” a witness asked an off-duty OPP officer who attacked a man in a Cambridge parking lot.

“Road rage happened,” Sgt. Rui Pacheco replied.

Pacheco, 50, an officer with Wellington OPP, was found guilty of assault on Friday.

The 21-year OPP veteran was driving an SUV on Dundas Street in Cambridge on March 14, 2016, around 9 p.m. The driver of a pickup truck apparently tried to move into Pacheco’s lane.

Both drivers became enraged. At a red light, they exchanged words. Pacheco’s family, including a preteen child, were inside his SUV at the time. The pickup driver was with his fiancée.

Pacheco followed the pickup into a Zehrs parking lot, exited and attacked the driver.

One witness testified at the trial that Pacheco got him to the ground, held one of his arms down, punched him in the head five or six times, kicked him in the midsection and fled.

The pickup driver’s fiancée also got tangled up in what was described as a “melee.”

A witness said she saw “the swinging of fists and all hell breaking loose.”

Several witnesses said Pacheco threw the first punch, but he claimed the pickup driver punched first and he punched back in self-defence.

“Mr. Pacheco’s actions are a far cry from lawful self-defence,” Justice Scott Latimer said in his judgment. “I find Mr. Pacheco was the aggressor who triggered the events that occurred in the parking lot.”

The pickup driver’s fiancée claimed Pacheco said before the attack, “I’m going to (expletive) kill this punk.” Latimer, however, did not accept much of her testimony.

Pacheco did not testify, but after his arrest he told police he became enraged when the man turned his pickup toward his SUV.

Pacheco said his family told him not to follow the truck into the parking lot.

“He said, ‘I can’t hear anything because I’m just so incensed,’” Latimer said.

Pacheco told police he wasn’t looking for a fight, but just wanted to “tear a strip off him.”

The judge didn’t buy it. “He intentionally applied force to seek retribution for perceived wrongs that occurred when the two men were driving on the roadway,” Latimer said. “The term ‘road rage’ used by Mr. Pacheco fits these facts very well. Mr. Pacheco lost control of his emotions and assaulted another motorist as a result.”

Pacheco was found guilty of assaulting the driver but not guilty of assaulting the driver’s fiancée and not guilty of two counts of threats. He will be sentenced later this year.

Pacheco was suspended with pay after he was charged. His future with the OPP is unclear.