DLM
05-12-2005, 10:44 AM
Drunk driver who killed twice jailed 15 years
35-year-old stripped of licence for life
'I must protect society from you': JudgeJIM WILKES
TOR.STAR STAFF REPORTER
May 12, 2005. 06:40 AM
Jeffrey Dressler sat expressionless in a Newmarket courtroom yesterday as he was handed the stiffest sentence in Canada for impaired driving causing death.
The 35-year-old Holland Landing man didn't flinch as Justice Howard Chisvin called him "a coward," sent him to prison for 15 years and barred him from driving for life for his second conviction on the same charge in six years.
He wore the same stone face as his victim's daughter held up photographs of Ion Mihaila and spoke of the "unbelievable sadness" that his death last November has caused his widow and her own two young sons.
And Dressler didn't even glance at a TV monitor as John Turner, a Mississauga man injured in the four-car crash, spoke from the grave in a videotaped statement recorded shortly before his death from cancer last month.
In a case that jurists called unprecedented in Canada, the former manager of an Etobicoke hazardous waste disposal centre pleaded guilty to causing death while being impaired behind the wheel on Highway 9, west of Newmarket, last fall.
Dressler had served less than two years of a four-year prison term after a 1999 conviction for impaired driving causing death in Innisfil, near Barrie, in 1996.
Crown counsel Harold Dale said Dressler fled the scene of that accident, in which his buddy, Barry Peterkin, was decapitated, but not before putting the car keys in the dead man's hand to make it seem like he was driving.
Court was told Dressler had two earlier alcohol-related accidents. In court yesterday, he also pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal negligence in the operation of a motor vehicle and two counts of failing to remain at the scene of an accident.
"Now Jeffrey Dressler is the poster boy for impaired driving causing death," Dale said outside the court, adding he hopes the message sent by the stiff sentence will be heard by those who drink and drive right across Canada.
"Our courts are clogged with impaired driving cases every day in every court," Dale said. "Those are the people who think that they can have a drink and drive home.
"Cab fare or bus fare is the cheapest bargain of all when you think of the consequences of driving impaired."
Roxana Bancea, Mihaila's daughter, said later she was most satisfied with the lifetime driving ban handed Dressler, and hoped that, as a result, no one else would "share the fate of my dad."
Court heard that Dressler sideswiped a car the morning of Nov. 27 on Highway 401 after an all-night drinking spree at a Mississauga strip club. He fled that accident, but the woman driving the other car chased him up Highway 427 into York Region, into a Vaughan subdivision and caught up with him at a gas station at Highways 7 and 27.
Dressler still refused to stop, Dale said, backing his Volkswagen Jetta into her car before fleeing again.
He drove north on Highway 400 and cut off another car as he exited east on Highway 9, slamming into Mihaila's station wagon as he tried to pass, spinning it into the path of an oncoming minivan. The impact tore off Mihaila's engine and rocketed it across the roadway into Turner's vehicle.
Dale said that of all those involved in the crash, Dressler was the only one not injured.
Mihaila's widow, Georgeta, wept in the courtroom as she watched the video statement by Turner, who said seeing 66-year-old Mihaila's body lie on the ground so long was one of the "great indignities" of the accident.
"It was cold, it was wet," he said sombrely. "I know he couldn't feel it, but he didn't deserve it.
"I don't know if you ever saw him," Turner said, directing his words at Dressler. "It didn't have to happen. It shouldn't have happened.
"All because you had to have one more drink. You have one more drink and everybody suffers."
Turner, who died April 1, said his life went downhill after the accident and the cancer that had been in remission returned.
He said he wanted to return to his previous life, to play with his young granddaughter. "I don't even know if I'll see her first birthday," he said. He didn't.
"I don't know what's going to happen to you," Turner finished. "In some ways I don't really give a damn."
Mihaila's best friend, Sergiu Badulescu, who suffered critical injuries in the crash, walked with a limp yesterday as he held the hand of his old pal's 3-year-old grandson, Christian.
"It shattered my soul," he told the court through a Romanian interpreter.
Mihaila came to Canada from Romania with his wife in 2000 and lived with his daughter and her family, who had moved to Maple the year before.
Dale said Dressler deserved no leniency for a pattern of drinking and driving that led to violence and death. He said Dressler took alcohol counselling during his first prison term, but told his counsellor he would drink again when he was released.
"He has caused death and injury and chaos to innocent families," he said.
The judge agreed.
"You caused a hole in these people's hearts that will not disappear until they do," Chisvin said, causing Dressler to take his eyes off the floor of the prisoner's box.
"You've left them with only pain and memories. I must protect society from you."
Chisvin also ordered Dressler to provide a DNA sample to the court.
Because he has been in custody since the accident, Dressler was credited with 11 months of time served, on a two-to-one basis common to courts.
The pony-tailed Dressler remained expressionless as he was led from the court in handcuffs, glancing twice at his father in the back row.
The penalties for impaired driving causing death were toughened to include sentences up to life imprisonment in 2000, the year after Dressler's first conviction.
Yesterday's sentence, worked out between Dale and defence lawyer Dennis Reeve, was approved by Chisvin, in part because of Dressler's guilty plea.
Outside the court, Bancea said she had doubts about Canada's legal system after learning Dressler had been allowed to drive again after his earlier conviction.
"After this I'm satisfied, if I can use this word," she said.
35-year-old stripped of licence for life
'I must protect society from you': JudgeJIM WILKES
TOR.STAR STAFF REPORTER
May 12, 2005. 06:40 AM
Jeffrey Dressler sat expressionless in a Newmarket courtroom yesterday as he was handed the stiffest sentence in Canada for impaired driving causing death.
The 35-year-old Holland Landing man didn't flinch as Justice Howard Chisvin called him "a coward," sent him to prison for 15 years and barred him from driving for life for his second conviction on the same charge in six years.
He wore the same stone face as his victim's daughter held up photographs of Ion Mihaila and spoke of the "unbelievable sadness" that his death last November has caused his widow and her own two young sons.
And Dressler didn't even glance at a TV monitor as John Turner, a Mississauga man injured in the four-car crash, spoke from the grave in a videotaped statement recorded shortly before his death from cancer last month.
In a case that jurists called unprecedented in Canada, the former manager of an Etobicoke hazardous waste disposal centre pleaded guilty to causing death while being impaired behind the wheel on Highway 9, west of Newmarket, last fall.
Dressler had served less than two years of a four-year prison term after a 1999 conviction for impaired driving causing death in Innisfil, near Barrie, in 1996.
Crown counsel Harold Dale said Dressler fled the scene of that accident, in which his buddy, Barry Peterkin, was decapitated, but not before putting the car keys in the dead man's hand to make it seem like he was driving.
Court was told Dressler had two earlier alcohol-related accidents. In court yesterday, he also pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal negligence in the operation of a motor vehicle and two counts of failing to remain at the scene of an accident.
"Now Jeffrey Dressler is the poster boy for impaired driving causing death," Dale said outside the court, adding he hopes the message sent by the stiff sentence will be heard by those who drink and drive right across Canada.
"Our courts are clogged with impaired driving cases every day in every court," Dale said. "Those are the people who think that they can have a drink and drive home.
"Cab fare or bus fare is the cheapest bargain of all when you think of the consequences of driving impaired."
Roxana Bancea, Mihaila's daughter, said later she was most satisfied with the lifetime driving ban handed Dressler, and hoped that, as a result, no one else would "share the fate of my dad."
Court heard that Dressler sideswiped a car the morning of Nov. 27 on Highway 401 after an all-night drinking spree at a Mississauga strip club. He fled that accident, but the woman driving the other car chased him up Highway 427 into York Region, into a Vaughan subdivision and caught up with him at a gas station at Highways 7 and 27.
Dressler still refused to stop, Dale said, backing his Volkswagen Jetta into her car before fleeing again.
He drove north on Highway 400 and cut off another car as he exited east on Highway 9, slamming into Mihaila's station wagon as he tried to pass, spinning it into the path of an oncoming minivan. The impact tore off Mihaila's engine and rocketed it across the roadway into Turner's vehicle.
Dale said that of all those involved in the crash, Dressler was the only one not injured.
Mihaila's widow, Georgeta, wept in the courtroom as she watched the video statement by Turner, who said seeing 66-year-old Mihaila's body lie on the ground so long was one of the "great indignities" of the accident.
"It was cold, it was wet," he said sombrely. "I know he couldn't feel it, but he didn't deserve it.
"I don't know if you ever saw him," Turner said, directing his words at Dressler. "It didn't have to happen. It shouldn't have happened.
"All because you had to have one more drink. You have one more drink and everybody suffers."
Turner, who died April 1, said his life went downhill after the accident and the cancer that had been in remission returned.
He said he wanted to return to his previous life, to play with his young granddaughter. "I don't even know if I'll see her first birthday," he said. He didn't.
"I don't know what's going to happen to you," Turner finished. "In some ways I don't really give a damn."
Mihaila's best friend, Sergiu Badulescu, who suffered critical injuries in the crash, walked with a limp yesterday as he held the hand of his old pal's 3-year-old grandson, Christian.
"It shattered my soul," he told the court through a Romanian interpreter.
Mihaila came to Canada from Romania with his wife in 2000 and lived with his daughter and her family, who had moved to Maple the year before.
Dale said Dressler deserved no leniency for a pattern of drinking and driving that led to violence and death. He said Dressler took alcohol counselling during his first prison term, but told his counsellor he would drink again when he was released.
"He has caused death and injury and chaos to innocent families," he said.
The judge agreed.
"You caused a hole in these people's hearts that will not disappear until they do," Chisvin said, causing Dressler to take his eyes off the floor of the prisoner's box.
"You've left them with only pain and memories. I must protect society from you."
Chisvin also ordered Dressler to provide a DNA sample to the court.
Because he has been in custody since the accident, Dressler was credited with 11 months of time served, on a two-to-one basis common to courts.
The pony-tailed Dressler remained expressionless as he was led from the court in handcuffs, glancing twice at his father in the back row.
The penalties for impaired driving causing death were toughened to include sentences up to life imprisonment in 2000, the year after Dressler's first conviction.
Yesterday's sentence, worked out between Dale and defence lawyer Dennis Reeve, was approved by Chisvin, in part because of Dressler's guilty plea.
Outside the court, Bancea said she had doubts about Canada's legal system after learning Dressler had been allowed to drive again after his earlier conviction.
"After this I'm satisfied, if I can use this word," she said.