Half of a cow helped keep a Sarnia man fully licensed.
A Lambton provincial police officer suspected Alexander Dortmans, who they pulled over on a Friday night this past summer for driving well above the speed limit in the Petrolia area, may have been drinking. The 27-year-old, though, had an overwhelming amount of beef in his gray 2004 Dodge Ram on Aug. 6, including in the cab, which made it hard to smell alcohol on his breath.
“A steak was lying in the passenger’s seat, so there was some interfering odors in speaking to the driver,” assistant Crown attorney Sarah Carmody said earlier this week while reading an agreed statement of facts to a Sarnia courtroom.
Three days after the incident, provincial police said they laid two Criminal Code charges related to impaired driving, along with one count of stunt driving under the Highway Traffic Act. Dortmans pleaded guilty Monday only to a single Highway Traffic Act charge of careless driving while all other charges were withdrawn.
Defense lawyer Nick Cake explained what his client was doing that night.
“Mr. Dortmans had picked up half a cow and was doing deliveries to friends and family in order to distribute the meat, had stopped for a couple of drinks along the way,” he said.
The cost of half of a cow in Ontario can range from $1,000 to $2,000.
Dortmans, who was clocked going 125 kilometers per hour in a 60 km/h zone on Oil Heritage Road, apologized to the judge for his poor judgment that day.
“I’ve learned from it. I don’t want anything like that to happen again, obviously,” he said.
“No, of course not,” Justice Joseph B. Wilson responded.
The judge agreed to impose a $2,000 fine, along with a one-year Provincial Offenses Act probation order, as both lawyers suggested, which puts limits on his ability to drive but still keeps his license intact. For the first month, Dortmans can only drive to work. Throughout the next year, he can’t have any alcohol in his system while behind the wheel and has to use an ignition interlock device.