A Sarnia police officer sent to a crash at the corner of Campbell and Sutton streets asked Austin Lapointe-Hall for his driver’s license and insurance documents.
“But instead Mr. Lapointe-Hall handed him two lottery tickets and seemed confused,” assistant Crown attorney Meaghan Jones said Friday in a Sarnia courtroom.
The 21-year-old Sarnia resident eventually found the right documents and admitted to the officer he had two Twisted Teas. He struggled when asked to get out of his car.
“To the point that he had to use his vehicle as a walking aid to get around to the back of it,” Jones said. “The officer was concerned that he would fall over, so the officer assisted him to the side of the road.”
Lapointe-Hall was arrested on June 18 around 1:30 am and taken to headquarters for tests, which showed he had between 150 and 160 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood. The legal limit is 80 milligrams.
Lapointe-Hall, one of three suspected impaired drivers charged in three days by Sarnia police at the time, pleaded guilty Friday to the charge. While representing himself in court, he told the judge there was no damage to the cars from the crash.
“Frankly, Mr. Lapointe-Hall, I must tell you that you’re very lucky, sir, that there wasn’t more property damage done to the vehicles during the course of the collision, but even more so that nobody was hurt or , even more tragically, killed,” Justice Krista Lynn Leszczynski said.
Lapointe-Hall, who had no prior criminal record, was fined $1,600, along with a $480 victim-fine surcharge, and banned from driving for one year.