Client J.S was charged with Care and Control of a Motor Vehicle While Impaired by Alcohol and Over 80 Blood Alcohol. The police were notified of a possible impaired driver in the City of Mississauga by a complainant who reported that a vehicle had been swerving along the QEW. The police located a vehicle parked in the driveway with the engine running and observed the client seated in the driver’s seat. Upon inspection of the driver, the officer detected alcohol emanating from his breath; eyes red and watery, and observed the client to have a difficulty exiting from the vehicle. The client J.S was arrested and was brought to the station, placed in custody and had to provide a suitable sample of his breath which registered a reading of 197 milligrams of alcohol in his blood.
J.S is Croatian and cannot speak or understand English well. Upon proceeding with the breath test, the client asked for a Croatian interpreter but the police officers failed to appropriately make the arrangements for the client. The officers continued to conduct the test with the client not fully being able to understand what was being asked of him. Failure to provide the client with an interpreter infringed his rights contrary to section 10 (b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
After reviewing the case and the applicable law, Mr. Batasar alerted the Crown to the fact there was no identification made by the witnesses and the vehicle was not in an operable state at the time of the arrest. Coupled with the lack of identification and the vehicle being inoperable, Mr. Batasar approached a number of Crown Attorneys including the Deputy Crown Attorney for the Peel Region, and put forth the argument that there was No Reasonable Prospect of Conviction, which the Crown accepted. As such, Mr. Batasar was successful in having the charges against J.S to be Withdrawn. This in turn as with others, saved his job, his house, marriage, and also spared him a Criminal Conviction as well as obvious insurance consequences.