CORNWALL – A city man has been sentenced to time served and has to pay a fine after leading Cornwall police on a motorcycle chase.
Scott Summers, 31, was sentenced March 21 by Judge Gilles Renaud to 60 days of jail through 40 days of time served in pretrial custody credited and one and a half times. The sentence was on a charge of flight from police.
The pretrial custody is part of Summer’s time behind bars between June and December last year after he was one of a number of people arrested in June 2021 in the Project Sunrise drug trafficking investigation.
He also has to pay a $400 fine, plus the $120 victim fine surcharge, and he is prohibited from driving for one year. There is no probation as he’s under bail conditions on other matters.
Summers sped away from Cornwall police after an officer tried to stop him on Pitt Street near Eleventh Street on April 1, 2021. Police followed the 2007 Triumph motorcycle with their emergency lights on until the bike pulled into an Augustus Street home.
“The driver had removed his helmet and stated that Const. (Matthew) Brush could not stop him in his driveway and then ran into the building…he (the driver) did say you can’t just turn on your lights in the driveway, you can’t do anything,” Crown attorney Shawn Eagles read from a statement of facts.
The police learned the plate had been reported stolen to OPP and the owner of the bike was also in custody.
Eagles agreed to withdraw any Provincial Offences Act tickets in lieu of the increased fine, under the plea deal. He also agreed to withdraw the remaining criminal counts, which were possession of stolen property and obstructing police.
While not tried on the charge, Summers stated that he had bought the bike from someone else and presumably the licence plate hadn’t been changed.
In an unrelated matter, Judge Renaud also committed Summers to face a judge-only trial in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on a charge of assault causing bodily harm. The alleged assault happened in May 2021. That case will be heard April 27 for a judicial pretrial.
There is no word on the status of proceedings with respect to the Project Sunrise case.
Summers was represented by Ottawa lawyer Ewan Lyttle.