A 55-year-old Lambton County woman picked up her first criminal conviction Friday following a strange scene at her neighbour’s house on Christmas Eve.
A 55-year-old Lambton County woman picked up her first criminal conviction Friday following a strange scene at her neighbour’s house on Christmas Eve.
A person living on a rural property on Churchill Line in Plympton-Wyoming called police, concerned there was an impaired driver on their property.
“Somebody had seen a vehicle pull into their driveway and then turn into their field and do doughnuts in the field and then get stuck in the mud,” assistant Crown attorney Meaghan Jones said Friday to a Sarnia courtroom.
That somebody turned out to be a nearby neighbour, Sherrie Schram. She got out of her stranded vehicle and stormed away on foot.
She walked about a kilometer before a Lambton OPP officer caught up with her heading east on the shoulder of the rural road.
“(The officer) described her as walking as if her feet were tangled,” Jones said.
Schram said she was just out for a walk, but she slurred her words and the officer could smell alcohol on her breath. She was arrested and taken to headquarters for testing, but either was unable or refused to co-operate during multiple breath tests.
On Friday, she pleaded guilty over Zoom from defense lawyer David Stoesser’s office to a single Criminal Code charge linked to the incident. Stoesser said his client was home that night amid the start of the holiday season and just wanted to go out for a “breather.”
“She got about two houses down from her place, realized that she shouldn’t be driving and attempted to turn around,” he said. “She didn’t know where she was and, as you heard, she drove into the neighbour’s field.”
About 11 years prior to the incident, Schram and her husband sheltered a stranded pregnant woman inside their Churchill Line farmhouse during a massive storm dubbed Snowmageddon, according to The Globe and Mail.
As for this situation, Stoesser added the yelling and screaming the court heard she exhibited to the neighbor and the officer “was just her being in a panic.”
Jones gave Schram credit for pleading guilty just a little more than months later.
“This is somebody who is stepping forward and taking responsibility for what happened and that deserves a fair amount of credit,” she said.
Schram told the judge she feels bad for what happened.
“This is something I’ve never done and I just feel bad for it,” she said.
“I trust that you won’t do it again,” Justice Anne McFadyen replied.
“No,” she responded.
McFadyen imposed a $2,000 fine and a one-year driving ban. Another charge was withdrawn.