Fatal accident: she denies having been drunk while killing an aspiring police officer

A woman who killed an aspiring police officer after returning from a drunken Christmas dinner four years ago has defended herself in court against being wrongfully charged with impaired driving drunkenness.

3 liter bottle of wine, sparkling, Stinger shooters, gin, rum, vodka. A panoply of alcohol choices was available to Audrey Perrotte and her friends at a Christmas dinner, just before she caused a tragedy.

On December 23, 2018, around 5:20 a.m., the 31-year-old woman hit head-on a vehicle coming in the opposite direction on Route 158 in Mirabel.

The other driver, Julien Lachance, 21, died instantly. His passenger survived.

Audrey Perrotte was charged a year later with impaired driving causing death and injury. His trial ended last week at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse.

At the time, no first responder had any suspicion that the driver at fault could have been intoxicated. She repeated that she had fallen asleep, that she had worked more than 50 hours in her week and that she had slept little in the last 24 hours.

Disputed results

But a few weeks later, an investigator in the file learned from a witness that alcohol was flowing freely at dinner.

“She was drunk, but not finished,” described Marie-Ève ​​Langlois, who left the party around 11:30 p.m.

The police seized Ms. Perrotte’s blood samples for analysis. Result: she had more than one and a half times the alcohol limit in her blood.

At her trial, the accused challenged these results, questioning the preservation of the vial of blood, which was left on a counter, without a cap, for long hours.

“We cannot be sure that the vial analyzed has not been polluted or altered. We should therefore have a reasonable doubt as to the result, ”argued the defense lawyer, Me Jean-Daniel Debkoski.

The latter attempted a Carter-type defense. His client thus testified to having consumed only two glasses of red wine, a flute of sparkling wine and a shooter, and this, over more than 10 hours. With this drinking scenario, his weight and height, his blood alcohol level should have been zero, experts testified.

This defence, dubbed the “two-beer” defence, is no longer admissible in court, since there is a “presumption of accuracy” with respect to breathalyzers and blood samples taken by police kit with approved containers.

Alcohol evaporated?

But in this case, the vials were not approved and the preservation conditions were not respected, so this presumption no longer applies, suggested Mr. Debkoski.

However, the contamination of a blood sample left in the open air is unlikely, for his part pleaded the Crown prosecutor, Me Sédrick Valiquette.

Moreover, the only possible impact of such an oversight is that the alcohol may have “evaporated” from the sample, he pleaded, adding that he did not believe the accused when she said that she had drunk little on the evening of the tragedy.

►Audrey Perrotte was previously convicted in 2013 for driving while impaired.

Killed while acting as designated driver

The young man who was fatally mowed down by a woman accused of driving drunk had just picked up his girlfriend who thought she had drunk too much to drive.

“Julien was always the designated driver for his friends, he refused to allow anyone to drive after drinking,” said the victim’s mother, Elisabeth Jones.

Her son was killed two days before Christmas, four years ago. He had just graduated from the National Police School of Quebec.

“Ever since he was little he wanted to be a policeman,” Ms Jones said.

Like his father, who was a captain in the Sûreté du Québec in 2018, and who has since retired.

Designated driver

At the time of the tragedy, Julien Lachance was returning from the 911 call center in Mascouche, where he had been working for a few months. Leaving around 4 a.m., he headed for Sainte-Sophie, where his girlfriend was celebrating with friends.

“I had gone by car to the party, but I had one drink too many so Julien came to get me,” Frédérique Vézina testified at the trial of Audrey Perrotte.

On their way to the young man’s residence, they had the misfortune to cross paths with the accused. It is the latter which has forked from its lane in a curve.

“I have no memories of the collision. Afterwards, Julien was still breathing a little, I could hear his breathing, ”said Ms. Vézina.

When police arrived, she panicked to see that all the effort was being put on her.

“They weren’t going to see Julien, they were just coming my way. I wanted them to go see Julien,” she added. But his bosom friend had already passed away.

Intervention of a friend

Moreover, sad irony: one of the first police officers to intervene with them knew Julien Lachance well. The latter was so disfigured that his friend did not immediately recognize him.

“He came to our house every week when we were in CEGEP. So it’s not someone I wouldn’t have recognized, ”said agent Philippe-Olivier Desjardins, who worked at the Mirabel police in 2018, with emotion.

“It was when we got to take him out that I looked at him and then I was like, ‘Oh, he’s a guy I know,’” he added.

►Judge Éric Côté is due to render his decision in 2023.