Jennifer Saltman (Vancouver Province) – Sentencing submissions will be made in B.C. Supreme Court Friday in the case of an RCMP corporal convicted of obstructing justice following a fatal crash in Delta.

Benjamin “Monty” Robinson, 41, was found guilty in March following a week-and-a-half-long trial.

Around 10 p.m. on Oct. 25, 2008, Robinson and two of his children left a Halloween party about five minutes from their Delta home.

At the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Gilchrist Drive, Robinson turned left and collided with 21-year-old Orion Hutchinson, who was thrown from his motorcycle and died.

After the crash, Robinson gave his driver’s licence to a bystander and walked his children home.

There, he drank two shots of vodka before returning to the scene.

Robinson, who was presented as an alcoholic at trial, testified that he drank the vodka without thinking in order to dull the pain he was feeling.

In her decision, Justice Janice Dillon said she did not find Robinson’s explanation to be credible.

“Robinson’s act of drinking the vodka was, I conclude, wilfully designed to set up the defence that he had learned during his police training,” Dillon said.

Dillon also concluded that Robinson lied to a Delta police officer about the amount he had to drink at the party and was purposely vague about how much vodka he had.

Robinson continues to be off work with pay, but he is the subject of internal code of conduct investigations for allegations of disgraceful conduct for operating a motor vehicle while impaired, failing to remain at the scene, failing to render assistance and obstructing justice.

A date for his code-of-conduct hearing has not yet been set.

Robinson is also one of four officers awaiting trial on a perjury charge in connection with an October 2007 Tasering incident at Vancouver airport during which Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died.

[Source]

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