Nobody is above the law. A Crown prosecutor who fled police after causing a crash while intoxicated has a criminal record. Alice Bourbonnais-Rougeau had tried to assert her “privileged status” as a prosecutor.
Posted at 1:01 p.m
After a lengthy trial, Judge Gabriel Boutros of the Montreal Metropolitan Court last Friday found Me Alice Bourbonnais-Rougeau guilty of two counts: hit and run and driving his vehicle under the influence of alcohol, April 24, 2021.
The prosecutor at the Bureau of Serious Crimes at the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) was sentenced to parole for the hit-and-run and a $1,000 fine for the other count. Therefore, she has to keep a criminal record for several years. He was also given a one-year driving ban.
The consequences of this conviction for his career at the DPCP are still unknown.
The 30-year-old lawyer drove home at the wheel of her vehicle in the evening. Alice Bourbonnais-Rougeau was unable to parallel park, even though there was ample space. She suddenly accelerated and then crashed into the car of Anatoly Anisin, the key witness in the trial.
From the start, Anatoly Anisin noticed the driver’s glassy eyes. Alice Bourbonnais-Rougeau told him twice that she wanted to “consult” with him. She then tried to give him her prosecutor’s card, but the witness refused, preferring to call the emergency services. When he called 911, the driver ran to her home.
” [Elle] is prosecutor. She needs to know that she is committing a criminal offense by leaving the scene after colliding with Mr. Anisin’s vehicle. […] The court sees no reason why she could have left the premises, other than what is in itself obvious: she did not want to interact with the police,” judges Boutros.
According to another witness, Alice Bourbonnais-Rougeau had a “wobbly” gait when moving. Half an hour after the accident, the police noticed a strong smell of alcohol coming from the driver. In a discussion by a window, the defendant also told police that she was a Crown Prosecutor and “knew the investigators she would call.”
“It’s a privileged status that she’s trying to use to get out of reach of the agents,” the judge said in a ruling on a preliminary motion.
After fleeing the scene, Alice Bourbonnais-Rougeau barricaded herself in her home for five hours while waiting for the police to issue a warrant for her arrest. The prosecutor tried unsuccessfully to argue that she had been unlawfully detained at her home. According to the judge, she was “the architect of her own unhappiness”.
Me Denis Gallant and Me Aline Ramy represented Montreal City Law Enforcement while Me Marie-Pier Boulet defended the accused.