Stanton wrote:Was it actually a police officer that did the background check on your wife or a civilian employee? I personally find the scenario troubling. Assuming an officer ran a CPIC check on your wife, they should have seen an entry stating she was suspended. If so, they shouldnt have returned her licence. Licences of suspended drivers are supposed to be seized and returned to the MTO. If it was a civilian employee they wouldnt have the same authority or responsibility.
I think your wife has an excellent defence if it was an officer. Ultimately shes responsible for ensuring her fines are paid, but I think the circumstances help show she was unaware of the suspension. She believed you had paid the fine on her behalf. She drove herself to a police station (not something a suspended driver would typically do). An officer examined her licence, returned it and never told her of the suspension.
The first Court date will NOT be a trial. Youll probably have a chance to discuss matters with the Crown and possibly obtain a plea deal (they frequently offer a plea to drive no licence). Id be tempted to not accept a plea and go to trial, but you may want to seek legal advice. The problem is that conviction for driving under suspension is so serious, that its sometimes not worth taking a risk. I'd also try explaining the scenario to the Crown but don't count on them simply withdrawing the charge.
Regardless, Id have your wife write down everything she remembers about what happened at the police station while its fresh in her mind. Id also find out the name of the officer that dealt with your wife at the station because if it goes to trial youll want them there.
Thanks for the great information. It helps a lot. I'm not sure who ran the actual record check. This was when she was going to pick up the results of the check. What happened was:
1. Wife walked into the office and handed her license to the woman at the desk (not in uniform)
2. Woman asked if my wife drove there. When my wife answered yes, the woman called an officer in and handed him the license. He told her that he needed to check something and walked out of the room
3. Some time later, he came back, put the license on the counter. The woman asked him if everything was okay, my wife didn't hear his answer but the woman said "good" and handed my wife the license with her record check and said that she could go
4. My wife drove out of the parking lot and pulled over about 100 ft down the road to go to a store and an office pulled behind her and turned on his lights.
5. He asked for her license and when she asked if there was anything wrong, he told her that he was told that there was a woman possibly driving on a suspended license.
Like you said, we don't understand why he would have given her the license if he knew that it was suspended. I also don't understand what benefit it would be to catch her driving on it instead of seizing it on the spot. We are trying to teach our kids that the police are there to help, but sometimes it feels like they aren't.
We called the courthouse to pay the original ticket and when we were talking to them, we were given the contact information for the prosecutor. Does it make sense to try to talk to him in advance? This would be before we have disclosure but 1) We would like to get this whole thing taken care of and 2) This is a small town courthouse and we are worried that when we get there, we won't have an option to talk to him before she has to plead.