Litany of charges lands woman six month sentence
By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on October 12, 2022.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com Punching, kicking and spitting at police officers, in addition to committing other criminal offences over the course of several months, has earned a 22-year-old woman six months behind bars.Kira Lynn Davoren was sentenced in Lethbridge provincial court after pleading guilty to charges of assault, assaulting a peace officer, obstructing a peace officer, assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, resisting a peace officer, dangerous driving, failure to attend court, driving with no insurance, and multiple breaches.
The first of the long list of offences occurred on June 14 of last year when police received a call at 1:40 a.m. that Davoren, who was intoxicated, was driving a vehicle despite attempts to stop her. Shortly after receiving the call, police received a report that Davoren had struck a parked vehicle near Park Lake north of the city.
When police arrived she admitted she was drunk, but when police told her she needed to take the roadside breath demand she told police she needed to spit first. When she opened the door, she fell out.
“She opened the door…she face planted outside of the vehicle, knocked herself unconscious and was unresponsive,” Crown Prosecutor Bruce Ainscough explained.
Moments earlier she had been yelling and spitting on the seats of her vehicle and kicking the door. She also scratched her wrists, causing her to bleed, and said she was suicidal.
EMS arrived and were able to revive her, but she stood up and fled toward a field, insisting she didn’t want to be helped by EMS personnel. She was eventually assessed and didn’t show any signs of a concussion or other injury, and her parents were contacted and agreed to meet at a designated location.
“Police were only going to issue her a 24-hour suspension notice and release her to her parents,” Ainscough said.
That changed, however, after she became aggressive.
Davoren began walking toward the highway, and when officers followed her to ensure she didn’t walk in front of traffic, she turned around and punched one of the officers in the face.
“She was then taken to the ground and arrested for assaulting a peace officer.”
She began spitting and tried to bite and kick the officers, who warned her if she didn’t comply she would be sprayed with pepper spray.
She finally complied, but only for a moment, and when officers attempted to put her in the police vehicle, she kicked an officer in the head and bit another officer in the hand, breaking his skin and causing him to bleed.
The officers, after a few more minutes of struggling with the woman, were finally able to take her to the Lethbridge Correctional Centre, but on the way she kicked the vehicle door and tried choking herself with the handcuffs.
After arriving at the jail, she slammed her head into an officer and once again had to be taken to the ground, where she continued to kick and spit at officers, prompting them to place a spit hood on her and another set of handcuffs. EMS were called, and they sedated her before taking her to the hospital, where she remained until she was sober, and then released on an undertaking.
The following month, at about 10 p.m. on July 10, Davoren called 911 and said she and her boyfriend had a “huge fight” and had been hitting each other and she was bleeding after cutting herself. When police arrived Davoren and her boyfriend were outside of the house, along with her parents, and she was hysterical. Police calmed her down enough to get her inside an ambulance, but she stepped out and refused treatment.
Her boyfriend, who appeared intoxicated, told police he and Davoren got into an argument and she began punching him in the face, which was evident by the redness. He told police he didn’t want her charged.
Police told her she was under arrest for assault, and she threatened to kill herself. While sitting on the ground an officer grabbed her arm to stop her from hurting herself and she punched the officer on the side of his head. She was placed in handcuffs and during the ride to the police station she managed to free one hand from the handcuffs and began banging her head inside the vehicle. Police were able to calm her down and she promised to behave, but after they arrived at the police detachment and she was checked out by EMS, she lied and said she had taken 15 extra strength Tylenol pills, and she was taken to the hospital where tests indicated she had not taken any pills.
Davoren was later released from custody on several conditions, including she not have any contact with her boyfriend or go near his residence. But at about 4 a.m. on Aug. 29 police responded to a 911 call from a residence reporting a man was acting violently and suffering from a seizure. Police and EMS arrived and found Davoren’s boyfriend highly intoxicated. He did not require treatment, however. Davoren was also at the residence in contravention of her previous release orders.
The man’s mother told police her son’s problems stem from his relationship with Davoren, and when Davoren overheard those comments and was also told she was under arrest for breaching her release conditions, she said she had to vomit in the bathroom. After waiting for some time for her to return, and not getting a response when knocking on the door, police discovered she had fled.
“An officer went outside, found the bathroom window open and the screen on the ground, and the accused was not in the bathroom,” Ainscough said.
On Sept. 10 Davoren was again caught at her boyfriend’s residence and was arrested and charged. She was co-operative that time, however, and subsequently released. Eight days later Davoren and her boyfriend were caught together again when police responded to an early morning disturbance, in which the couple was also involved.
Davoren was in trouble again on July 22 of this year after police, who were driving along 5 Avenue North about 4 a.m., pulled up beside a vehicle that was in the wrong lane and stopped at a red light. An officer yelled at Davoren and told her she was in the wrong lane, and she said she was going to turn, but when the light turned green she continued driving in the wrong lane until she turned off further up the road.
Police stopped the vehicle, noting the licence plate was registered to a different vehicle, and when they talked to Davoren she didn’t seem to understand she had been driving in the wrong lane. She also said she didn’t have her licence, registration or insurance with her, and when police commented on her slurred speech, she explained she recently had her tongue pierced.
Given her driving pattern, slurred speech and confusion, police requested a roadside breath sample, but she wouldn’t blow. She became agitated and police, fearing she may flee, attempted to take the keys off the dashboard, but Davoren grabbed them, started the car and struck one of the officers with her open door as she backed up.
She was pulled out of the vehicle and arrested for impaired driving, but refused to cooperate and had to be pushed into the police vehicle. When police read Davoren her rights, she laid down and pretended to be unconscious. She was able to remove one hand from her handcuffs and resisted attempts to be handcuffed again, and she made spitting noises and called the officers vulgar names.
After they arrived at the police station Davoren continued to be combative, then became emotional and apologized, claiming she is not herself when she drinks.
Lethbridge lawyer Cara Lebenzon explained her client, who at the time of the offences did not have a criminal record, was diagnosed at the age of 13 with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which has had a significant impact on her mental health. She was also neglected and abused as a child, which resulted in a severe addiction to alcohol.
If not for drinking, Lebenzon added, Davoren likely never would have committed the offences for which she was charged.
Lebenzon pointed out that during Davoren’s time in remand custody, she participated in wellness programs and worked on her coping skills. She also earned a construction certificate from Lethbridge College.
“Her goals are to have a job in labour or construction, and ultimately to go to treatment to deal with the issue of alcoholism and to really explore her FASD and other mental health issues so that she can get her life back on track,” Lebenzon said.
In addition to her jail sentence, Davoren was also levied several fines, including $3,000 for driving without insurance. Rather than pay the fines, however, she will serve the default time in custody. She is prohibited from driving for one year, and will be on probation for two years after she is released from jail. During probation she must be assessed and receive counselling and treatment for substance abuse, domestic violence, life skills, anger management and psychiatric and psychological issues.
Davoren was also given credit for the equivalent of 114 days spent in pre-trial custody, leaving 66 days remaining on her sentence. Follow @DShurtzHerald on Twitter 4
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