High-risk drunk driver heads back to jail
Posted Mar 12, 2014 06:57:45 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A man convicted of drunk driving causing death is back behind bars again after breaching a peace bond for the second time since January.
Michael Gerard Cooper pleaded guilty yesterday in provincial court to a charge of breaking his curfew and was sentenced to 30 days of jail.
The fifty-five-year-old is supposed to be back in his Dartmouth apartment by 9p.m. but was picked up by police walking the streets at 9:15p.m.
Cooper recently finished serving all seven years of a prison sentence for impaired driving causing death in connection with a 2004 crash in Cape Breton which killed a young couple in the other vehicle, but he was arrested in late January for breaching a peace bond.
He was released last week after spending 38 days in custody on a charge of breaching the bond by going into a Halifax liquor store.
A forensic psychiatrist who examined Cooper says he suffered significant brain damage in the crash and will require “ongoing living and social supports and services” to reintegrate into the community.
That assessment concluded Cooper was fit to stand trial and not exempt from criminal responsibility due to mental illness but the report also suggested his case be transferred to the mental health courts. That wasn’t a requirement and his charge relating to the liquor store ended up being resolved in provincial court.
In court last week, Cooper’s brother had promised to help him as he makes appointments with various social support agencies.
