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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Drunk driver shouldn't go to jail, Appeal Court agrees
Manitoba's highest court has upheld the suspended sentence of an impaired driver who crushed the legs of a city worker in an April 2008 crash.
In a unanimous ruling released last week, the Manitoba Court of Appeal said the lower court made the right decision in not sending Joan Henderson to jail.
Justice Barbara Hamilton said Henderson did not have the "moral blameworthiness" to warrant a jail sentence.
Henderson, 55, had pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing bodily harm, but she blamed prescription drug Mirapex. Mirapex, the subject of a national class-action lawsuit, has been linked to compulsive behaviour.
In Henderson's case, court heard she suffered from restless leg syndrome and had been taking Mirapex to treat the often-painful symptoms. However, she was hit with numerous side-effects that included an "involuntary" inclination to gamble and drink alcohol.
On the night of the crash, the otherwise quiet, coffee-drinking Henderson played VLTs and drank a half-dozen double rum and Cokes inside Smitty's lounge in Garden City. She said she blacked out on the drive home.
Michael Pacheco, part of a street-cleaning crew working near the Kildonan Golf Course, was picking up road signs when Henderson's Dodge Neon hit his legs, crushing them against his own vehicle. Witnesses said Henderson made no attempt to stop. Her blood-alcohol level was .20, more than twice the legal limit of .08. She had no prior criminal or driving record.
Pacheco, 29, was rushed to hospital in critical condition and doctors feared they would have to amputate both legs, court heard at Henderson's January 2011 sentencing. He spent months in hospital, has undergone eight surgeries, still has difficulty walking and suffers extreme physical and emotional pain.
The Crown asked for a two-year prison term for Henderson.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 8, 2012 B3
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