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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Fatal-crash acquittal stuns Crown

-- Accused admitted to speeding, partying -- Judge extends 'benefit of the doubt'

By: Mike McIntyre

Posted: 06/28/2012 1:00 AM

Odette Dequier

He admits fleeing the scene of a deadly crash he caused. He doesn't deny speeding at least 40 kilometres more than the posted limit in his Jaguar. There's no dispute the tragedy came after he spent the night partying and drinking.

But a Winnipeg man has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by a judge's decision that has puzzled the Crown.

Roland Artimowich, 38, was acquitted Tuesday of criminal negligence causing death, dangerous driving causing death and leaving the scene of an accident. Queen's Bench Justice Morris Kaufman said the Crown had failed to prove his guilt on all three charges "beyond a reasonable doubt."

"We're stunned. It doesn't make sense," a senior justice source familiar with the case told the Free Press on Wednesday. An appeal of Kaufman's decision will most certainly be filed.

Odette Dequier, 46, was killed in November 2008 in a crash on Highway 3 near Oak Bluff. She was driving her pickup truck west through town when she was struck head-on by a van. Police say that van had been rear-ended by a speeding 1999 Jaguar, forcing the driver to lose control of the vehicle, cross the median and strike Dequier's truck. Dequier was taken to Health Sciences Centre in critical condition, where she died a week later from her injuries. The driver of the van was not injured. The driver of the Jaguar fled on foot before police arrived, and could not be found.

Artimowich turned himself in to police the following day, admitting he was behind the wheel of his mother's Jaguar. He claimed he got scared by the sight of Dequier trapped inside the wreckage of her vehicle and didn't want to stick around to see any more.

The Crown argued Artimowich had a more sinister motive for fleeing the scene -- to avoid criminal culpability. A water bottle filled with alcohol was found inside his abandoned car and witnesses said Artimowich had spent the previous night and that morning drinking alcohol at a bar in Oak Bluff. Artimowich took the witness stand in his own defence and denied being drunk. He admitted spending the Saturday night drinking at a bar with friends but said he had his last rum and cola about 8:30 a.m. Sunday -- more than eight hours before the deadly crash.

Police were unable to prove if Artimowich was legally impaired because he didn't surface until a full day following the crash. Kaufman ruled this week he was giving Artimowich the benefit of the doubt, saying the onus was on the Crown to prove Artimowich fled the crash to avoid detection in order to find him guilty of that charge.

"He says he left because he saw the person trapped in the vehicle and wanted to get away from that image," Kaufman said.

Kaufman said he accepted Artimowich's version of events, which includes not seeing the van he rear-ended because it didn't have proper running lights on at the time. Artimowich also claimed that was the first time he ever drove that highway and didn't realize the speed limit was 70 km/h. He admitted having his cruise control set at 110 km/h but claimed he hit the brakes and slowed down to 90 km/h just prior to the collision. One of the Crown's witnesses, an ex-girlfriend of Artimowich's, claimed he admitted to doing 125 km/h on the highway the evening of the crash in a conversation they had.

Kaufman said the Crown hadn't proven Artimowich's driving represented a "marked departure from the normal standard," which is why he acquitted him of the dangerous driving and criminal negligence charges.

"I can't say beyond a reasonable doubt the driving rises to the level of dangerous driving, or the driver showed a level of wanton and reckless disregard," said Kaufman.

Dequier grew up in St. Claude and was a high school debating champion. She studied accounting and managed a local co-operative before she decided to switch careers and become a long-haul trucker. She had been working for Yanke trucking at the time of her death. Her older brother, Gilles, was killed in 1983 in a fatal highway rollover.

www.mikeoncrime.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 28, 2012 A3