Suspect in driving rampage too sick for trial

Too sick for court, the suspect in a driving rampage in which a fleeing vehicle reached estimated speeds of 180 km/h on city streets was excused from attendance Tuesday.

Travis Ricky Ball was scheduled to appear in provincial court via CCTV from the Calgary Remand Centre, but didn’t show up.

Lawyers for Ball initially thought he may have been hospitalized, but a sheriff’s officer told court she believed he was still at the northwest Calgary jail.

“I don’t believe he’s in the hospital but he’s very sick, so the nurse in our health-care unit dismissed him for today,” the sheriff said.

Miller asked that Ball’s case be adjourned to next Tuesday, so lead defence lawyer Rebecca Snukal could have time to meet with him at the jail.

Following the court appearance, Snukal said she doesn’t know yet whether she’ll be asking for her client’s release pending trial.

“I need to seek my client’s instructions,” Snukal said.

Ball was arrested on 27 charges after police say a driver in a stolen Jeep menaced city streets on July 5.

Officers were called to 52nd Street and 26th Avenue N.E. around 12:30 a.m. for reports of a man assaulting a woman in a parking lot.

Upon arrival, they saw a man and woman get into a white Jeep Cherokee, which had been reported stolen out of Leduc on June 21.

The Jeep then fled northbound in the southbound lanes of 52nd Street, nearly striking cruisers responding to the complaint, police said. They allege the driver deliberately drove into oncoming traffic “for a number of hours,” hitting estimated speeds of up to 180 km/h and running red lights.