Impaired driver was victim, court told

by Andy Campbell

Mar 13, 2008

SUNDRIDGE – A Port Sydney man has received justice tempered with mercy after pleading guilty to impaired driving and driving while disqualified in Sundridge provincial court on March 4.

Gene Stevenson, 41, was charged on May 7, after an OPP officer spotted him turning from Hwy. 11 onto Emsdale Road without proper plates. On further investigation, police determined that Stevenson was impaired, and also driving while under a three-year suspension for a previous offence in Huntsville.

But that was not the whole story, according to Stevenson's attorney.

“Your Honour will appreciate that Mr. Stevenson is somewhat unsophisticated,” he said.

Stevenson, he said, was driving the vehicle of an acquaintance, who, also being intoxicated, persuaded him to do it. He was apparently the least intoxicated person in the car.

“My client is very pleasant, very amiable and easily manipulated,” he said, noting that while Stevenson aims to please, he does not always grasp the consequences of his actions.

Stevenson lives near Port Sydney in a trailer, without running water or a telephone, on a property his late father purchased. He earns a modest income as a woodcutter, and is paying off back property taxes he didn't know he needed to pay. He is, by all accounts, a hard worker. According to his lawyer, he has never breached a probation order, and the supervision does him good. He has been deemed too independent for Adult Protective Services, but is well-known in Port Sydney, and the community looks out for him.

The Crown and the defence jointly recommended 90 days in jail, with an additional three-year driving suspension and three years of probation. Crown attorney Ted Carlton acknowledged that the custodial sentence is “at the low end of the range” while the probation is a particularly long one. However, he considered the sentence appropriate.

Justice Lawrence Klein, having been well informed about Stevenson's history and his situation, agreed.

“It is obvious that you have skills in a lot of areas,” he told Stevenson. “And you have some disadvantages, and people have taken advantage of that.”

Klein imposed the recommended sentence, including a special term in the probation order. Stevenson is not allowed to sit in the driver's seat of a motor vehicle.

“Even if you don't move it, you can't sit in it,” Klein said. “The temptation is too great.”