Robbery
On April 6, 2016 at 5:10 p.m., the Espanola Police Service responded to a family dispute at a James Street residence, involving two brothers.
Upon arrival, police were told that an ongoing dispute over the ownership of an Xbox controller resulted in one brother assaulting the other, causing an injury to the one brother’s nose. The brother who was the aggressor, struck the other several times, before taking the Xbox controller, which was not his property, and left the house.
A short time after the occurrence, the suspect turned himself in to the Espanola Police Service, and was charged with one count of robbery, for using violence, while committing a theft. At the time of his offence, he was under the influence of alcohol.
The 25-year old Espanola resident will appear in court on June 7, 2016, to answer to his charge.
Careless Driving / 90-day Licence Suspension
On April 13, 2016 at 2:30 p.m., members of the Espanola Police Service were conducting stationary radar enforcement in the 40 km/h hospital zone along Queensway St., when they clocked a vehicle traveling at 65 km/h. When the officer stepped out to wave the vehicle over, the driver ignored the officer’s direction and continued on past, turning onto McKinnon Drive towards the hospital. The officers entered their cruiser, and managed to stop the vehicle in the rear parking lot of the hospital, near the entrance to the nursing home.
Upon speaking to the 78-year old driver from Espanola, the officer smelled alcohol on his breath, and pursuant to a demand, the officer obtained a sample of the driver’s breath into an approved screening device, which registered a “Fail.” Based on the reading, the officer arrested the driver for operation over 80 mgs, and transported him to the police station where breath tests were conducted, providing blood alcohol readings of 96 mgs and 88 mgs of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood. Due to the fact that both readings, once truncated, would not be over 80 mgs, the male was not charged with impaired operation, but still qualified him for a 90-day ADLS licence suspension, and a vehicle impoundment for 7-days. Further, he was charged with Careless Driving contrary to the Highway Traffic Act, as his level of impairment hindered his ability to operate a vehicle with due care and attention.
Truncation is the practice of rounding the breath test values down to the nearest 10 mg.
Shoplifting
On April 5, 2016 at 12:00 p.m., the Espanola Police Service received a complaint from a local retailer, advising that a male had just left the store without paying for a package of four bottles of compressed air used for cleaning computer keyboards; commonly referred to as duster.
Upon arrival, police viewed the store’s video surveillance, and recognized the male from previous police involvement as a 22-year old Espanola man. A search of the area between the retail store and the male’s residence located him walking on Queensway St. where he was arrested for the offence of theft under $5000.00. The four bottles of duster were not recovered, but based on the male’s demeanor, it was believed that he had inhaled the substance in a practice known as “huffing.”
As a result of the incident, the 22-year old was charged with one count of Theft Under $5000.00, and issued a promise to appear in Espanola Court on June 5, 2016, to answer to his charges.
