Drunk driver tried to donate empty vodka bottles
Witness reported Kimberly Thomas Washburn, 65, of Fredericton, pulled up to recycling donation box, confused and unsteady on his feet, court heard Friday
A Fredericton man was slurring his words and stumbling when he got out of his car to put four empty liquor bottles in a recycling donation depot, a court heard Friday.
Kimberly Thomas Washburn, 65, of Woodbridge Street, pleaded guilty in Fredericton provincial court Friday to a charge of impaired driving.
Crown prosecutor Geoffrey Hutchin said Fredericton police were dispatched to St. Margaret’s Anglican Church on Forest Hill Drive on May 24 after receiving a report of a possibly drunk driver at the scene.
A woman who was retrieving recyclables from a Scouts dropoff donation box in the church parking told an officer a motorist later identified as Washburn pulled up to that location, the prosecutor said, and when he got out of his vehicle, he was unsteady on his feet and slurring his words.
“He appeared to be confused with regard to what she was saying,” Hutchin said, adding the witness also noted Washburn pulled four empty vodka pint bottles out of his pockets to put in the recycling receptacle.
“She didn’t think he was safe to drive.”
Washburn had left the scene before police arrived, the prosecutor said, but the witness got his plate number.
Court heard an officer went to the address associated with that licence plate, and Washburn answered the door.
He was showing clear signs of intoxication, Hutchin said, and he failed a roadside breath test. As a result, he said, Washburn was arrested and brought to the city police station, where a breathalyzer test revealed his blood-alcohol level to be 110 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood.
Any reading of 80 mg or higher is illegal.
Defence lawyer Emily Cochrane said her client’s lack of a criminal record and guilty plea were mitigating factors for the court to consider.
Hutchin asked the court to impose the mandatory minimum fine of $1,000 with a one-year driving prohibition, and Cochrane agreed that was appropriate.
Judge Anne Dugas-Horsman said those mitigating factors merited that minimum sentence but noted the facts of the case revealed Washburn was seriously impaired on that day in question.
She imposed the $1,000 fine plus a customary $300 victim-fine surcharge, and the year-long ban against driving anywhere in Canada.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.