Driving while Intoxicated and Fatal Accident: Acquitted Because of an Instruction Deemed Untimely

The Intermediate Court has acquitted because the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has not met the deadline of four months to initiate criminal proceedings.

Joseph Guy Ludovic Merle is fortunate. The magistrate Denis Mootoo, the Intermediate Court has removed the charges of manslaughter and driving while intoxicated against him. This, despite the fact that he had a blood alcohol level of 276 milligrams in his blood, a rate five times greater than the threshold allowed by law. 

The accident occurred Dec. 23, 2007 to 4:00 p.m. in Black River. Ludovic Merle Joseph Guy was driving his car and drove towards Yemen. His vehicle collided with a cyclist, a man named Philippe Celestin. He died instantly. 

After his arrest, Joseph Guy Ludovic Merle had indicated that an object came crashing against the windshield of his car without knowing what it was. He said he stopped his car about 500 yards away and then he realized that there was a part of a bicycle that was hanging from his car and also blood on the windshield. 

He has subsequently understood that he had hit a cyclist. At trial, the prosecution had indicated that the body of Philippe Celestin was thrown over a wall, making a 80 meter high, landing on a fallow land. Thus, according to the prosecution, the fact that the defendant stopped his car 500 yards away and the condition of the car after the accident shows that Joseph Guy Ludovic Merle speeding at the time of the collision. 

The magistrate Denis Mootoo however, rejected both arguments offered by the prosecution: "(...) it is also plausible that the body of Philippe Celestin was transported to the wasteland, given that there were two openings in the wall" may says the trial. Regarding the charge of driving while intoxicated, the magistrate Denis Mootoo granted the benefit of the doubt Joseph Guy Ludovic Merle.

The advocate of the latter had shown that the collision was caused by the fault of Philippe Celestin as it rolled in the middle of the road and appeared out of nowhere. "It's a possibility and the prosecution has not been able to refute this argument," highlighted the magistrate Denis Mootoo. 's lawyer Joseph Guy Ludovic Merle was also noted in the trial, that the act charges should be dropped, given that the period of four months, as prescribed by section 123 of the LB Road Traffic Act to retain the charges against the accused was not respected by the continued . 

This law states, however, that the Court can ignore that period if the delay in prosecution is warranted. "In other words, it was incumbent upon the prosecution to justify the delay. 

Otherwise, this is fatal to the prosecution because the Court can not determine the reasons behind the delay, "remarked the magistrate Denis Mootoo, before relaxing Joseph Guy Ludovic Merle.