A Kamloops man who was arrested for prohibited driving an hour after receiving a 24-hour suspension has been acquitted despite the fact a provincial court judge thinks he is probably guilty.
Court heard Percy Korosi was stopped at an RCMP roadblock on Overlanders Bridge at 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 12, 2014, while driving a pickup he had borrowed from a friend.
RCMP Const. Guillaume Pelletier testified he could smell marijuana in the vehicle and asked Korosi to pull ahead to a secondary investigation area.
There, Pelletier said, another officer performed a sobriety test and Korosi, 49, was handed a 24-hour driving ban.
Pelletier said Korosi was told to wait for the truck’s owner to pick up the vehicle.
Pelletier and an auxiliary constable, Cory Lockwood, then left the scene to deal with another call, eventually pulling over a suspected impaired driver near the Dirty Jersey Pub on Eighth Street in North Kamloops.
“Const. Pelletier was investigating an impaired driver when I witness this same exact vehicle drive past us on York Avenue and enter into the Dirty Jersey parking lot,” Lockwood testified.
“I informed Const. Pelletier that was the vehicle we had been dealing with on the Overlanders Bridge. He advised me to keep eyes on the vehicle. I could see clearly that there was one occupant in the vehicle.”
Lockwood said he watched the truck for about 10 minutes. Eventually, a car pulled up beside it and the truck’s occupant got out and entered the second vehicle.
The car then left the parking lot and was immediately stopped by Lockwood.
“Mr. Korosi was in the passenger seat where I saw the driver of the truck get into,” Lockwood said. “At that time, I advised him that he was under arrest for driving while prohibited and please step out of the car.”
Taking the stand in his own defence, dressed in a Saskatchewan Roughriders jersey, Korosi said he was “100 per cent innocent.”
“Yes, I was at a check stop,” he said. “Yes, I smelled like marijuana. They gave me a 24-hour — hey, that’s great. I can live with that.”
Korosi said he did not drive the truck to the Dirty Jersey. Rather, he said, his brother came by and drove the vehicle to the pub because he wanted to go inside to drink.
For that reason, Korosi said, he took the keys back from his brother and waited for his roommate to pick him up.
Korosi said Lockwood must not have seen his brother leave the truck and enter the pub.
He also admitted to sitting in the truck’s driver seat while waiting for his ride in the Dirty Jersey parking lot.
“His version about how he got into the driver seat makes absolutely no sense,” Crown prosecutor Evan Goulet argued.
“Variously he wanted to have the keys, that it would be quicker to get into the other vehicle or he wanted to turn the heat on.
“None of these explanations make any sense and the reason for that is they just are not true.”
Korosi, who was not represented by a lawyer, maintained his innocence in his closing submission.
“Cops are only human,” he said to Kamloops provincial court Judge Len Marchand.
“I’ve been a human for 50 years, almost. I’m still a human. I make mistakes.
“If you find me guilty, you find me guilty. I still know I’m 100 per cent innocent. It’s your call, captain.”
Marchand said he couldn’t wrap his head around the fact someone who had just received a 24-hour suspension would drive past a police car and park in a lot in plain sight.
“If Mr. Korosi was driving, he’d surely keep driving or park out of plain view,” the judge said.
“While I find that Mr. Korosi was probably driving while prohibited, that is not enough to secure a conviction.”
Korosi had a brief response to Marchand’s decision: “Sweet.”
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