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Impaired driver receives heavy fine and prohibition

After being charged with driving while impaired an Ermineskin Cree Nation member has been sentenced to a $1,000 fine and a one-year

After being charged with driving while impaired an Ermineskin Cree Nation member has been sentenced to a $1,000 fine and a one-year driving prohibition.

Sharmaine Wildcat, 29, was pulled over on 49 Street in Ponoka on Sept. 20 by an RCMP member. There was a strong odor of alcohol coming from the motor vehicle and Wildcat admitted to splitting a pack of 26 beers earlier that day.

Breath samples provided at the detachment showed 0.10 and 0.9 alcohol blood levels. Defense counsel explained Wildcat was polite with officers during their interaction.

Judge W.A. Andreassan advised, three months into her prohibition, she may be eligible for resuming driving with a vehicle interlock system. “Ms. Wildcat, you and everyone else knows the dangers of drinking and driving,” he said.

Public intoxication

Cecelia Redcrow, 33, of the Samson Reserve received a $150 fine after being found passed out on the lawn of an apartment complex in town and breaking probation.

RCMP responded to a complaint on Oct. 18 that three people were highly intoxicated and laying outside at the corner of 54 Ave and 50 Street.

Redcrow was so intoxicated she had to be carried  to the RCMP vehicle and she was uncooperative while getting in.

In her fanny pack, RCMP found five prescription bottles, four too worn to read and the last not in her name. The medication not in her name was a breach of probation.

Three elderly people who lived in the apartment complex helped the RCMP clean the garbage and alcohol bottles that has surrounded the people on the lawn and told them they had been too nervous to go outside and had missed their afternoon activities.

Consuming alcohol and not keeping the peace were factors of Wildcat’s probation which she had received earlier in the same month as her court appearance. She also has a non-related $30 fine from Andreassan that was unpaid on the day of sentencing, Friday Oct. 7