Prosecution argues delay tactics in impaired driving case

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on June 11, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A Lethbridge woman who hopes a judge will strike her previous guilty plea for impaired driving causing bodily harm is only trying to avoid going to jail, the Crown prosecutor in the case suggested Friday.
Lethbridge prosecutor Michael Fox told Jessica Lee Gearing during a hearing Friday in Lethbridge provincial court, that the only reason she is applying to strike her guilty plea is because “you don’t want to go to jail,” and striking the guilty plea is the only option she has to delay that eventual outcome.
Gearing maintains, however, she felt pressured by her former lawyer to plead guilty, and that he repeatedly told her she was going to jail. She told court she believes she has a defence to the charge – she was blacking out and having a panic attack – and wants to explain what happened nearly three years ago when she ran over a woman with her car.
Following her guilty plea in November 2020, court was told Gearing, 33, had been in a bar in July 2019 and was preparing to drive away when an acquaintance tried to stop her from leaving. Gearing, however, ran over the woman as she drove away. Gearing, who was intoxicated at the time and did not realize she had driven over anyone, was arrested a couple of hours later at her residence.
Gearing was set to be sentenced last September, following sentencing submissions earlier in the summer by the Crown and defence. The Crown recommended Gearing receive a sentence between one year and 15 months, while defence suggested a sentence ranging from three to six months.
During the hearing in July, Judge Kristen Ailsby said she would sentence Gearing to a jail term, but she reserved her decision to consider an appropriate period of custody. When the matter returned for sentencing in September, Gearing, who then had a new lawyer, told court she wants to strike her guilty plea.
Lethbridge lawyer Ingrid Hess said her client believes she may have a defence, but she didn’t have all the information available to her, and her previous lawyer only focused on pleading guilty. According to Gearing’s affidavit, there was no discussion between Gearing and her lawyer of any defences, which caused her to feel pressured to plead guilty.
Hess pointed out that even if there aren’t any defences, that should have been explained to her.
“If you just tell your client you’re dead guilty of this, you’re just dead guilty, and you’ve got to plead guilty, but you don’t explain to them why things that they think might be defences are not available to them, then I submit that amounts to a kind of pressure.”
At the conclusion of Friday’s hearing Judge Ailsby said she wants more time to consider the issues of voluntariness and a section of the Criminal Code that ensures an accused person fully understands the consequences of a guilty plea, and she reserved her decision until the end of the month.

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