Belleville man pleads guilty to impaired driving after New Year’s Eve incidents

By Thomas Goyer

BELLEVILLE – A Belleville man has lost his driver’s licence for a year after a drunken New Year’s Eve which included a domestic dispute and an impaired-driving arrest.

Assistant Crown attorney Vicky Bae told court Wednesday that the man arrived at the Belleville home of his ex-partner early in the morning of Jan. 1, 2019. The couple had previously been together for 16 years and have three children together.

At 3:30 a.m. he began knocking on the door of the house, and once the woman came to the door, the man forced himself in, Bae said. An argument between the two began, with the woman noting how drunk the man was. The man threw a chair out the front window, went to his car and drove off, Bae said.

The woman called the police and reported a drunk driver in a black Kia.

At 4 a.m. a police cruiser noticed the car swerving on the road, court heard. The cruiser turned on its lights to pull the car over but it proceeded to drive straight into a ditch. When the officer exited his vehicle he saw the man fleeing on foot. The officer ran the man down and arrested him.

The man had a prior conviction for domestic assault, in 2015, court heard.

The man pleaded guilty Wednesday to impaired driving and attempting to flee the scene of accident. He had already settled the damage to the woman’s home outside of court, his defence attorney said.

He was prohibited from driving for one year, given a year’s probation, and ordered to pay a $2,000 fine.