Court denies RCMP officer's claim he drank after fatal crash
Officer was one of four involved in airport Taser death
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 4, 2009 | 10:45 AM PT
CBC News
RCMP Cpl. Benjamin Robinson, shown in February 2005, lost an appeal of the suspension of his driver's licence on Tuesday. (CBC)An off-duty RCMP officer failed to get his driver's licence back after claiming he took two shots of vodka following a fatal accident, in a court ruling handed down Tuesday in Vancouver.
Delta police allege Cpl. Benjamin "Monty" Robinson, who was 38 at the time, was driving the Jeep that hit and killed 21-year-old Orion Hutchinson as he was riding his motorcycle last November.
Following the crash, Robinson was reportedly suspended with pay from the RCMP's Vancouver 2010 integrated security unit and investigators recommended charges of impaired driving causing death and impaired driving, but the Crown has yet to lay charges.
Robinson is also one of four Mounties involved in the death of Robert Dziekanski a year earlier, and is expected to testify in two weeks at the Braidwood inquiry that is looking into that death.
But while under suspension from service for the accident, Robinson appealed the suspension of his drivers' licence, maintaining he got drunk immediately after the accident.
According to court documents, Robinson said he had two beers at a party early in the evening, roughly five hours before the accident.
Robinson then told police he left scene of the collision, and in the 10 minutes he was gone, he had two shots of vodka, suggesting those two shots drove his blood-alcohol level beyond the legal limit.
Robinson told police he returned to the accident site after drinking the vodka shots, according to court documents.
The judge questioned whether two shots were enough to cause Robinson's blood-alcohol level to exceed .08 per cent.
The judge ruled that given the fact that Robinson offered no evidence around how much alcohol was in those shots, where they came from, or how they were consumed, there was no basis to find fault with the decision to suspend his licence.
But since Robinson's 90-day suspension took effect Dec. 11, he will be eligible to resume driving next week, despite the failure of his appeal.
