Pubdate: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 Source: Vaughan Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2004 Vaughan Citizen. Contact: http://www.yorkregion.com/yr/newscentre/vaughancitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2432 Author: Martin Derbyshire MOM WANTS APOLOGY TO CLEAR DAUGHTER'S NAME Police Said Stouffville Teenager Was Impaired The mother of a Stouffville teenager killed in an August car accident is demanding police retract their claim her daughter was impaired. "There is no scientific data saying she was impaired," said Karen Montgomery, whose 17-year-old daughter, Janette, was killed when she lost control of her car and hit a traffic pole in East Gwillimbury the morning of Aug. 29. "I've asked for a retraction and I want an apology. I want her name cleared." Janette was giving a friend a ride home shortly after 9 a.m. when she changed lanes to pass another car. It was raining heavily and she lost control, crossed in front of the other car and hit its front bumper. Her Cadillac Eldorado, a gift from her grandfather just weeks earlier, left the road and hit a pole. The Cardinal Carter Catholic High School student was taken to hospital, where she died. Her 19-year-old passenger suffered non-life-threatening injuries and the driver of the other car was not hurt. Three months later, York Regional Police issued a news release stating a toxicology report from the Centre of Forensic Science indicated Janette had drugs and alcohol in her system and was impaired. However, toxicology reports do not indicate impairment, only a level of drugs or alcohol present in a test sample of a subject's blood, urine or saliva. A copy of Janette's toxicology report obtained by the York Region Newspaper Group indicates she had a level of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, consistent with having exposure to the drug within about two hours of the crash. Unlike alcohol, there is no THC blood level that constitutes a charge under the Criminal Code. There is also no data to support what level of THC would indicate impairment. The report also indicted an unknown level of a benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine found in the body after ingestion of the drug. It 4suggests Janette used cocaine, but does not pinpoint when or how much. Her toxicology screening also showed trace, or amounts below a level that can be quantified, of ethanol in her blood. The ethanol could have come from drinking alcohol or something as benign as mouthwash. Nowhere does the toxicology report say Janette was impaired. York Regional Police Staff-Sgt. Thomas Carrique admits the media release should never have indicated it did. "It should have said: based on the toxicology report, all the other evidence and the analysis of a drug recognition expert, who also happens to be a qualified breath alcohol technician and a collision investigator, she was impaired, in our opinion," he said. Two York Region officers were recently certified as drug recognition experts. However, the drug recognition expert (DRE) program is designed to determine impairment using a series of psychological and physical tests on live subjects, not by looking at toxicology reports of the deceased. "That's where the confusion may be," Staff-Sgt. Carrique said. "He did not perform a DRE examination, but he used his expertise as a drug recognition expert, an extremely qualified breath alcohol technician and a very experienced collision investigator to form the opinion she was impaired at the time of the crash." That's not good enough for Janette's mother, who says her family and friends were upset to read newspaper stories claiming she was impaired without the scientific proof to back it up. "The toxicology report didn't say she was impaired. There is no way they can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was. They've tried, convicted and sentenced her without all the facts," she said. "This has been devastating to my family. The police have made her look like a criminal, like a bad person. She was just a normal teenager and her rights have been trampled on." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D