HAMILTON - Tears and hugs greeted a Hamilton court decision as two Brant OPP officers were given an absolute discharge after pleading guilty earlier this week to their involvement in a wild police chase that ended with the death of Brantford’s Ashley Lerno.
Constables Craig McMurtrie and Rodney Grubb were embraced by their families and Lerno’s mother, who wept with them.
“I’m really, really, really thankful for the outcome for both of them”, Joanne Lerno said outside the courtroom.
“They’re both amazing officers and they didn’t deserve anything else.”
Lerno said the officers had both expressed their sorrow to her and she and they had bonded over the experience.
“They have to live with this and that’s more than anybody should have to handle.”
After an investigation by the province’s Special Investigations Unit, the officers had been charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing death in the Oct. 10, 2014 incident where a stolen pickup truck slammed into Lerno’s vehicle.
Insiders say it may be the first time a police officer has pleaded guilty to any charge in connection with a police chase.
The driver, Richard Gamble, was found guilty of those same charges plus driving while disqualified and failing to stop at an accident involving bodily harm or death. A repeat offender with dozens of driving related convictions, Gamble was sentenced in October last year to 13 years in prison.
McMurtrie and Grubb pleaded not guilty to their charges and were to begin a three-week trial on Monday.
Justice George Gage said in a written decision that the constables pleas of guilt, bail conditions and the “cloud of criminal prosecution” they had lived under for two years were more than enough of a punishment as he granted their discharge.
“The added element of criminal conviction is entirely unnecessary to make the point,” said Gage.
The judge said police officers are ordered to make a continuing reassessment of things during a police chase. It should have been apparent that Gamble wasn’t going to stop his vehicle voluntarily and was likely to continue driving recklessly and dangerously.
But, he said, the circumstances of the event were “both rapidly evolving and highly stressful.”
“They did not have the luxury of calm and considered reflection and review that hindsight affords,” said Gage.
“In these circumstances, I find that their moral culpability is substantially attenuated.”
Assistant Crown attorney Peter Scrutton, from Toronto, went to Superior Court just before the judge read his decision and dropped the charges of criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing death.
But Scrutton had argued the officers should have been sentenced to pay a $3,500 fine in order to act as a deterrent to other officers about high-speed police chases.
Gage disagreed, saying that police operate knowing that an officer who doesn’t make the right assessment during a chase but is otherwise acting in good faith can still face criminal charges, which is a powerful deterrent to all officers.
“The expressions of utter mortification on the faces of McMurtrie and Grubb as they entered their pleas poignantly underscores the validity of this conclusion,” said Gage.
McMurtrie and Grubb were on duty Oct. 10, 2014 conducting a RIDE program just outside Burford when they saw a pickup truck make a U-turn away from them. Concluding it was someone trying to evade the police, they followed, using lights and sirens to try and stop the truck.
Gamble, then 48, and his passenger, David Gregory, then 34, sped away, starting a 10-km chase that included going the wrong way along Ballantyne Drive, tearing across a residential lawn, going off-road by D’Aubigny Creek and side-swiping one of the cruisers.
Although speeds reached as high as 160 km-h outside of town, inside Brantford city limits, McMurtrie and Grubb slowed to the speed limit while Gamble continued to speed. “Over the last one to two minutes of the event,” said Gage, “the actions of the officers were no longer a direct influence on Gamble’s driving.”
Gamble went through the intersection at Gilkison and Colborne Street West, causing devastating injuries to 18-year-old Lerno and a girlfriend. Lerno died in hospital five days later.
Gamble said it wasn’t him in the driver’s seat but a judge declared his testimony to be unreliable. With numerous convictions for driving offences, including dangerous and impaired driving, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
McMurtrie and Grubb, on the other hand, have been upstanding community members and “highly regarded and valued” members of the Brant OPP since 2010, said Gage.
The father of four, McMurtrie has received commendations from the city, the county and the government of Ontario and been cited by the public for his courtesy, compassion and care while exercising his duties.
Grubb is a decorated veteran who was injured in battle in September 2006 when he served with the 1st Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment in Afghanistan.
Both of the officers were involved in the community event that brought an early Christmas to St. George to fulfil a wish of young Evan Leversage who was dying from cancer.
The emotional and clearly relieved officers declined to comment about their sentence, as did each of their lawyers who said the judge’s decision spoke for itself.
But Bill MacKenzie, who represented McMurtrie, said the actions of Joanne Lerno had been important to the officers.
“Ashley’s mom is here and she hugged the officers and their wives and has been very supportive of them through the process. That was hugely meaningful to them.”
OPP spokesperson Dave Rektor declined to comment on the decision, saying the case will be reviewed by the OPP’s professional standards bureau.
What's an absolute discharge?A judge can hand down an absolute discharge to a person who pleads guilty but is an otherwise upstanding member of society who would be significantly harmed by a criminal record. It can't be against the public interest when it comes to legal issues like deterrence or rehabilitation.
While a conditional record leaves the person with rules to follow – like keeping the peace and being of good behaviour – an absolute discharge means there's no criminal conviction or criminal record.
After one year, an absolute discharged is automatically pardoned and wiped from the record.
http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2017/0 ... ischarge-2