Fatal crash court case ‘an insult to my family’
Driver who killed his wife fined $2,000
Robert Cadieux, 51, was never given his day in court, so now his hours bubble with suspicion and anger.
The day he was denied — Jan. 9 — court accepted a guilty plea by a Quebec motorist who rear-ended the Cadieux vehicle on Highway 401, killing his wife Kristine, 32, and leaving Robert with injuries he has yet to recover from. Her death left him bereft, alone with three kids at home, and a sign-repair business he could no longer run.
Not only was he mystified how this happened in his absence, but he didn’t even know the name of the accused. The Citizen obtained a transcript of the proceedings and forwarded the seven-page record to Cadieux. “It’s an insult to me and my family,” he reacted. “This is a disgrace.”
For anyone not familiar with the system — like Cadieux — it is an eye-opening peek inside the legal sausage factory we call justice.
For starters, it is apparent from the transcript that the two prosecutors that day — neither a full-fledged lawyer — were not very familiar with the details of the case, were unprepared for a request for a proceeding in French and never even raised the prospect of a licence suspension.
Instead, Felix Laframboise, 20, of Saint-Hubert, Que., accepted a pre-agreed fine of $2,000, made a brief apology and, accompanied by his mother, was on his way.
There are several stumbles in the written record, but perhaps the most astonishing was that it was Laframboise himself who had to tell Justice of the Peace Louise Logue which vehicle the victim died in.
The Crown was represented by two individuals: M. Raymond, a paralegal prosecutor, and M. Campbell, an articling student.
Laframboise elected to proceed in French, as is his constitutional right. One problem: M. Campbell doesn’t speak the language well, so the whole proceeding went ahead with the prosecutors, the judge, even the accused, hopping from English to French. “It’s all right,” Laframboise said at one point, as they scrambled for the correct word: “I understand ‘carelessly.’ ”
After the plea, the justice asked for a rendering of the facts. Well, the full file was left in the Crown’s office and all the pair had to work with were “officer’s notes,” so Raymond plodded along with the barest outline of events.
Laframboise, to his credit, accepted full responsibility for the crash, saying — unprompted by anyone — he fell asleep at the wheel.
But there was no evidence about where he was going, how long he’d been on the road, why
he was so tired, his purported rest-stop a few miles before, how fast he was going and whether he attempted to apply the brakes before rear-ending the Cadieux vehicle and causing a rollover.
He then apologized to the Cadieux family, saying he was 100 per cent guilty. “Bien sûr, je, je suis désolé pour toute la famille, toutes les choses qu’on peut…,” reads the transcript, before the train of thought is broken.
“Is the (Cadieux) family here?” the justice responded. The paralegal didn’t know. (They weren’t, of course: Cadieux says he wasn’t even informed.)
The widower, meanwhile, is now wondering about the police investigation. He said he was told by the OPP they were looking for possible impairment by drugs or alcohol and verifying the mechanical worthiness of the Laframboise vehicle, but those subjects were never raised in court.
The “joint submission” on penalty was for a $2,000 fine on a Highway Traffic Act offence, with 18 months to pay. But it was Laframboise himself who offered to pay within 30 days, not 18 months, which only added to the jumble.
Justice Logue said she was pleased Laframboise was accompanied by his mother, “une bonne maman.”
It is all cold comfort for Cadieux, meanwhile, who spends his days in pain knowing his children’s mother is never coming home.
“I don’t know how any of this could have happened. It’s like they threw my wife’s case away,” he said. “I don’t know why a college student can be asked to deal with a case where there’s a death.”
He was also shocked to learn that the OPP laid charges on July 27 — only a month after the crash — yet, he says, told him all summer the matter was under investigation. Cadieux now wonders how much technical investigation the police could have done in 30 days.
“It’s just more and more questions,” he said.
After he went public, the Crown had a review of the matter and has announced an appeal, with an eye on a licence suspension and the provision of a victim impact statement. It has declined further comment, pending the appeal, to be heard Feb. 28.
I don’t know how any of this could have happened. It’s like they threw my wife’s case away.