A Canmore man will have to pay almost $1,000 in fines and spend 18 months on probation and under house arrest after pleading guilty to obstruction, causing a disturbance and driving dangerously.
John Ryan Kennedy entered the guilty pleas to five charges under the Criminal Code in front of Judge George Gaschler in Canmore Provincial Court last Wednesday (Aug. 9).
Defence counsel Dale Fedorchuk told Gaschler that Kennedy has struggled with the side effects of multiple head injuries, which resulted in dramatic changes in his life.
Fedorchuk said the injury created issues with pain for his client, as well as made it challenging for him to work full time.
“All this certainly is no excuse for what has taken place, but you have before you an individual who has suffered from circumstances that have occurred in the last few years,” he said, adding the 48-year-old did not have a criminal record until now.
Crown prosecutor Britta Kristiansen told court the circumstances that surrounded the 13 criminal charges he faced as the result of several incidents occurring in 2016 and this year.
Last July, she said, RCMP were called to a residence for a report of a male who was refusing to leave and eventually located Kennedy, who then fled on foot. The Crown said he was uncooperative with the members, who told him they would use pepper spray on him.
“As a result, he was taken to the ground and the accused was handcuffed and arrested,” she said.
The incident led to the obstruction charge he pleaded guilty to, as well as charges of causing a disturbance, assaulting a police office and an indecent act in public, which were withdrawn by the Crown as a result of the accepted guilty pleas.
In April this year, Kristiansen said officers observed Kennedy driving a vehicle with a passenger when they attempted to pull him over. She said the accused did not stop, even though lights and sirens were used, and officers disengaged from pursuing him when he drove at 50 to 60 km/h through a school zone while students were being dismissed for the day.
He was later located, arrested and charged. Kennedy pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, a lesser and included offence to failing to stop for police.
He also pleaded guilty to several charges that stemmed from him breaching his release conditions.
Judge Gaschler agreed with the sentencing recommendation of the Crown. Kennedy was fined $150 each for two charges of breaching conditions, $750 for obstruction, given a nine-month conditional sentence order for the dangerous driving charge and an additional nine months probation afterwards.
He was also subject to a year long driving prohibition and must abide by a curfew of 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. while serving his sentence in the community.
