Methadone evidence introduced at impaired driving trial

Hours before a St. Thomas family was badly injured in a headon crash two years ago, someone named Nathan Hathaway received methadone from an east London pharmacy as part of a drug treatment program.

It was a surprising twist at the trial of Hathaway, 31, who has pleaded not guilty to four counts of impaired driving by drug causing bodily harm and four counts of dangerous driving in the crash July 24, 2016, on Wilton Grove Road.

Kevin Williams, his wife Victoria and their four children were heading home from the Mustang DriveIn movie theatre when they were hit head-on by a Nissan Rogue driven by Hathaway.

Both parents were left with brain injuries. One of their daughters was badly hurt. A child in Hathaway’s vehicle was also injured. Toxicology tests of Hathaway’s blood taken at the hospital after the crash showed both methamphetamine and its metabolite, amphetamine, in the sample, an expert witness testified earlier. There was no evidence of methadone, a synthetic drug used to treat addictions — something two expert witnesses said would have shown up in the tests.

But testimony Wednesday from Samer Toma, the pharmacy manager from London Medical Pharmacy East, pointed to someone named Nathan Hathaway who had been on the methadone program the week before the crash and had taken a dose during the daytime hours before the crash. Through questions from defence lawyer Robert Farrington, Toma said part of the methadone program protocol is that once someone produces a prescription, the dosage is produced and the pharmacist has to witness the participant taking the medication.

In the case of the records brought to court, Hathaway was given 20 mg of methadone six times that week. Each dosage notation was initialled by a pharmacist. Toma admitted in cross-examination by assistant Crown attorney Meredith Gardiner that the pharmacy “has a high work flow” and that the times of the dosages weren’t recorded, which they should have been under the rules from the College of Pharmacists. He also said he wasn’t the pharmacist who dealt with Hathaway and could not identify him as the person who came into the pharmacy and was on the program. There was a short break after Toma’s testimony, asked for by the defence, to have time to produce to Superior Court Justice Marc Garson some evidence that the Nathan Hathaway who was on the methadone program was the same person on trial.