A jail guard from Sarnia has been convicted of driving impaired, but it’s unclear what, if any, impact having a criminal record will have on his job.
Robert Clare, 34, pleaded guilty Wednesday in a Sarnia courtroom to a single Criminal Code charge of impaired driving linked to an incident this past June on Confederation Line when he was about three times the legal limit.
“He’s never been in any type of trouble before. This incident marks the biggest mistake of his life,” defense lawyer Luke Reidy told the judge. “He’s here to accept responsibility and make the changes to ensure that it never happens again.”
Before accepting his guilty plea, Justice Krista Lynn Leszczynski went through a standard list of questions to ensure he was aware of all the potential consequences – including on his employment. Clare, a corrections officer, told the judge he understood that.
When asked about the impact the conviction may have on his job, Andrew Morrison, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General, said the ministry does not publicly discuss internal human resources matters.
When reached Saturday, Joel Bissonnette, a corrections officer at the Sarnia Jail and president of OPSEU Local 128, said he can’t comment, either.
“Unfortunately I can’t speak to anything like that,” he said.
While arguing for a lower fine, Reidy told the judge there is a serious toll on the lives of corrections officers as they’re regularly subjected to violence and stressful situations while having to maintain an image of toughness.
“So the result is that they’ve got extremely high rates of addiction and self-medicating,” he said. “And, unfortunately, Mr. Clare wasn’t able to avoid these statistics.”
After being arrested in the early-morning hours of June 27 in south Sarnia, Clare was taken to OPP headquarters in Corunna for testing. Results showed he had between 224 and 227 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood.
The legal limit is 80 milligrams.
“Extremely high readings,” assistant Crown attorney Sarah Carmody said.
The court heard police were called by a concerned citizen about a white SUV driving on Confederation Line around 1:30 am that Sunday.
“The witness advised police the vehicle was swerving all over the road and had hit a construction pylon,” Carmody said while reading an agreed statement of facts.
The witness followed the driver to a home in the Turner Drive area, where they had a hard time pulling into a driveway.
“Described it as stopping and going and inching forward until it finally came to a stop,” Carmody continued. “The witness also observed the driver exit the vehicle and lean onto the hood of the car.”
Police arrived and talked to Clare, who showed obvious signs of being impaired.
“He had a hard time staying balanced,” she said.
Clare told police he didn’t recall hitting anything and wasn’t aware of any damage to his vehicle, but they still arrested him and led him to a cruiser.
“He had difficulty walking straight at this point in time and required assistance,” Carmody said.
Reidy said his client was also suffering from a stress-induced ulcer that night and has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety.
“He is now being medicated professionally so that he can deal with it properly rather than self-medicating,” he said.
Clare declined a chance to address the court.
“I agree with Mr. Reidy,” he said.
Reidy asked for the minimum $1,000 fine while Carmody countered with $2,200 due to the poor driving and the high breath tests. Leszczynski settled on $2,000.
Clare is also banned from driving for one year. A second charge was withdrawn.