Four years after Baeleigh Maurice was fatally hit by a pickup truck while riding her she scooter in Saskatoon, a court has upheld the decision to stay an impaired driving charge,
In the decision from the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal on Friday, the Crown’s case was dismissed. Prosecutors had argued the Supreme Court of Canada-mandated 18-month time limit from charges being laid to a verdict was incorrectly applied by the trial judge.
Taylor Kennedy was 28 years old when she hit Baeleigh, 9, who was at a marked pedestrian crossing, in September of 2021.
Kennedy was charged the following March, and 899 days passed from that date before the case ended in a stay of proceedings.
The Crown argued some of those days should not be included in the court’s calculations, and prosecutors said Kennedy was tried in as reasonable of a time frame as possible.
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“Courts have repeatedly acknowledged that the pandemic resulted in delays and that those delays should not be treated as the fault of the Crown,” according to Crown’s case in the court files.
“The judge in this case identified the pandemic as a discrete event constituting an exceptional circumstance but found she was unable to quantify the delay.”
Baeleigh Maurice was fatally hit by a pickup truck on Sept. 9, 2021.
Rochelle Dubois / Supplied
Another element of the Crown’s argument involved the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms-related challenges put forth by the then-accused’s lawyer regarding Kennedy’s rights after her arrest.
The Charter challenges put forth by the defence lawyer, in addition to other extensions requested by that representative, were said by the Crown to have prevented the trial from continuing.
“The total time to conclude Ms. Kennedy’s trial still significantly exceeded what is allowable under the Charter,” Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal wrote in its conclusion – despite agreeing a total of 134 days should have been removed from the trial judge’s calculations.
Kennedy was the first person in Saskatchewan to face charges of THC-related impaired driving causing death.
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