A young Crown prosecutor who was convicted of driving while impaired and then trying to hide from the police has just failed on appeal, so her criminal record will stand.
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Questionable credibility of witnesses, reasonable doubt, too long legal delays… Me Alice Bourbonnais-Rougeau, from the Serious Crime and Special Affairs Bureau, had tried everything to get away with it.
“The court rejects the appeal,” however, ruled Judge James L. Brunton this Monday at the Montreal courthouse.
With these words, the magistrate thus upheld the conviction of the prosecutor, for her crime committed in April 2021.
At the time, the lawyer was driving home when a neighbor noticed her difficulty parking. After two attempts, she hit a car right behind her.
«[Une femme] testified that his parking attempts were so poor that it provoked laughter,” reads the judgment.
Me Alice Bourbonnais-Rougeau, Crown prosecutor, guilty of impaired driving and hit-and-run.
Photo taken from RICHARD ROUGEAU’S FACEBOOK PAGE
“You don’t know who I am.”
The neighbor, Anatoly Anisin, went to meet the woman. And, according to him, it was obvious that she was impaired, among other things because of her questionable balance and her glassy eyes.
Bourbonnais-Rougeau replied, slowly, that they were going to “work things out,” but this neighbor instead announced that he was going to call the police.
“We’ll work it out, you don’t know who I am,” replied Bourbonnais-Rougeau, who had unsuccessfully tried to give his professional card to the witness, but without identifying himself.
She then returned home. And once patrol officers were there, she “decided to stay safe from the police officers who were camped outside her apartment, instead of offering them the information that the Criminal Code requires her to provide to the following an accident,” concluded Judge Gabriel Boutros of the municipal court.
When the agents finally managed to speak to her, Bourbonnais-Rougeau did not fail to tell them that she was a Crown prosecutor.
Rejected all along the line
During the trial, however, she chose not to testify, as is her right. But she was also found guilty, fined $1,000 and banned from driving.
Dissatisfied with this decision, the 32-year-old lawyer nevertheless appealed the case, citing errors by the judge and raising the possibility that the magistrate had poorly analyzed the facts before him.
“With respect, [Bourbonnais-Rougeau] is wrong,” said the judge on appeal.
As for the prosecutor’s claims that she had no criminal intent in leaving the scene without identifying herself, the magistrate recalled that it was “pure speculation”, given that she had remained silent during the trial.
Finally, Bourbonnais-Rougeau believed that the case had dragged on too long and that she was the victim of unreasonable delays, but again the judge dismissed her case.
During the appeal, Bourbonnais-Rougeau was represented by Ms.e Marie-Pier Boulet, while Me France Larochelle officiated for the chase.
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