Skyline car owner is acquitted
Ontario Provincial Police constable can’t recall whether he told the man, ‘We will crush you’
KITCHENER It was an unusual development.
The owner of a speedy Nissan Skyline was acquitted of seven charges, including dangerous driving, after the first witness at his trial — a police officer — finished testifying.
Crown prosecutor Brendan Gould recommended the acquittals in Kitchener court following discussions with the man’s defence lawyer, Ian Collins.
An acquittal is a “legal declaration of innocence” and was requested “in fairness” to the man, said Gould, who took over the case from another Crown after the officer finished testifying.
Collins told Justice Craig Sigurdson the OPP constable’s testimony “reflected negatively on his credibility.”
The Skyline owner, 33, of Kitchener alleged the officer was jealous of his right-hand-drive 1991 Skyline, a Japanese import in mint condition, and wanted to take the “dream car” off the road.
The charges for which he was acquitted — dangerous driving, failing to stop while being pursued by police and five Highway Traffic Act offences — were laid in August 2020.
After he was acquitted in April, the trial continued on charges of dangerous driving, failing to stop for police and stunt driving from June 2020 when Waterloo Regional Police officers saw him driving 220 km/h on Highway 8. He was found guilty of those charges.
On the August 2020 charges, the OPP officer testified:
■ He could not confirm or deny telling the man after arresting him outside his house, “We will crush you.”
“I would like to think that I would not have said that, however ... I can’t recall and I don’t have it in my notes, so I can’t say for certain that I didn’t say that,” he told Collins under cross-examination.
“But I would like to believe that I didn’t say that.”
Collins said, “I’m sure you would.”
■ He doesn’t recall yelling at the man.
“From what I can recall, I don’t have any notation that he was aggressive or anything like that and I don’t recall me yelling, however adrenalin might have been up at the time, but I don’t recall specifically yelling.”
■ He arrested the man despite another officer arriving at the man’s house a minute earlier and putting him in handcuffs.
“So someone else arrested him, not you?” Collins asked.
“No, I arrested him, as well,” the officer said.
Collins: “How does a person get arrested twice?”
Officer: “I don’t know if he was arrested prior to that.”
Collins: “But wouldn’t handcuffs on him give you an indication that he had been arrested?
Officer: “Not necessarily. I’ve had handcuffs on people for detention before ... I can’t speak to whether he was arrested. I wasn’t there.”
Collins wondered whether he asked the other officer if he had arrested the man.
“I don’t believe at that point I had asked him that,” the officer said.
Collins said the other officer wrote in his notes he arrested and handcuffed the man.
The lawyer suggested that officer put the man in the back of his cruiser.
Collins alleged the officer on the witness stand pulled the man out of the cruiser and said, “Who do you think you are?”
“I do not recall saying that,” the officer said.
■ He said he seized the man’s cellphone and wouldn’t let him use it to call his lawyer out of concern he would enter a code that would wipe the phone’s contents.
It turns out the phone was not forensically examined due to a backlog, the officer testified.
He said the man wasn’t given a chance to call his lawyer because he was being released.
The officer testified he was driving a marked cruiser when he spotted the Skyline on Highway 401 near Hespeler Road in Cambridge around 9 p.m. on Aug. 2, 2020.
A check of the licence plate revealed the Skyline owner had been charged with fleeing police and dangerous driving two months earlier.
He said he pulled behind the Skyline.
The officer said the car exited the highway but then re-entered the 401 and exited at Highway 8, where it “accelerated “at an extremely rapid pace.”
He estimated the Skyline hit speeds of 150 to 180 km/h.
“The Skyline swerved across all lanes to take the exit to Sportsworld Drive and it cut off cars that were in lane two, the slow lane, causing them to brake suddenly,” he said.
The officer said he had his emergency lights on but the driver refused to stop.
He was asked why the Skyline initially attracted his attention.
“It was a car that I don’t normally see, a Nissan Skyline,” he said. “It’s a higher-end or performance car. I like cars and Skylines are ...”
The Skyline owner injected to say, “Your dream car.”
“This is a car that I definitely like,” the officer said.
The man said, “You like it, so take it off the road, cuz it’s your dream car, right?”
The judge told him to stop interrupting.
The officer said he figured he wouldn’t be able to catch up to the Skyline, so he pulled over and then drove to the owner’s house.
On June 17, 2020, two Waterloo Regional Police officers in an unmarked cruiser saw the Skyline swerve across four lanes on Highway 8 in Kitchener.
When the Skyline accelerated, police gave chase with the emergency lights and siren on.
The cruiser hit speeds of 180 km/h.
Police ended the pursuit when the Skyline sped up to an estimated 220 km/h, court was told.
The driver was arrested at his house. He will be sentenced on those charges in August.
The man previously claimed his car “made every cop in this town jealous” and alleged police were out to get him because he “built their dream car.”
How does a person get arrested twice?
IAN COLLINS DEFENCE LAWYER