Justice for Geo an imperfect compromise
No sentence will ever bring little boy back
When I first heard that Richard Suter, the man charged with impaired driving causing the death of two-year-old Geo Mounsef, was instead pleading guilty to failing to provide a breath sample, I felt outraged. The plea agreement seemed to minimize the tragedy of a death that rocked this city like few others.
On May 19, 2013, George Mounsef and Sage Morin and their two children were sitting on the outdoor patio at a Terwillegar restaurant. Suddenly, an Acura SUV crashed through the glass partition and across the deck, pinning the little boy.
Here was a happy young family, celebrating al fresco on the deck of an upscale suburban steak house. They were in a space we think of as a safe haven. It is that sense of violation that so inflamed community passions, and inspired a social media campaign demanding “Justice for Geo.”
Yet while Friday’s plea agreement may not look like the justice some demanded, it will offer Alberta’s courts their first real test of a new Canadian law introduced in 2008 to crack down on alleged drunk drivers.
The Criminal Code amendment makes failure to provide a breath sample after being in the care or control of a motor vehicle that caused the death of another person a far more serious crime than refusing a roadside breathalyzer.
This new charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, with no chance of parole for seven years.
In fact, the penalties for failing to provide a breath or blood sample in such circumstances are now exactly the same as the penalties for impaired driving causing death.
For the Crown, though, this is a far easier case to make. The Crown doesn’t need to prove a driver was impaired, only that a police officer had reasonable grounds to demand a breath sample, and that the driver refused provide one.
In essence, once you say no, you’ve essentially convicted yourself, whether you were impaired or not.
The plea agreement may not give people as much satisfaction as an outright impaired driving conviction, especially since Suter’s lawyer has never conceded his client was impaired. But the end result will be roughly the same.
The Crown and defence believe this is the first time in Alberta that anybody will have been sentenced simply for the crime of failing to provide a sample after a fatal accident.
While the maximum penalty is life in prison, there is no minimum. The sentence could be a fine or house arrest. More likely, it could be somewhere between two and five years, about the same amount of time someone would get for pleading guilty to impaired driving causing death.
Will that be justice for Geo? I’m sure there are some for whom no jail term, not even life in prison, would ever be enough. When Suter first appeared in court two years ago, angry spectators caused such tension, eight sheriffs and two city police officers were stationed in the courtroom to keep order.
Then, in January, Suter was found, beaten and bleeding, his thumb severed, in a field outside the city. Suter told the Journal he’d been kidnapped by three men, who handcuffed him, beat him, then left him in the snow. Just this week, Steven Gordon Vollrath, 32, was arrested and charged in connection with the alleged kidnapping and assault.
No court sentence, not matter how just, will ever bring Geo back. No act of vigilante violence — if that’s what the attack on Suter was — will bring him back either.
Friday’s guilty plea is an imperfect compromise for everyone involved. But for two families scarred by tragedy, no courtroom drama was ever going to offer a happy ending.