CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A 52-year-old man who was so intoxicated he couldn’t walk to a police vehicle without help was sentenced recently to 75 days in jail for his fifth drunk-driving related conviction.
David Andrew Gribovsky appeared before Chief Judge Nancy Orr in provincial court in Charlottetown for sentencing after previously pleading guilty to having care and control of a vehicle while impaired.
During a previous appearance, the court heard that on Nov. 21 at around 4:50 p.m., Stratford RCMP responded to a report of a possible impaired driver at Tim Hortons.
The police found Gribovsky hunched over the vehicle’s console and they nudged him to wake him up.
Gribovsky had a bottle of vodka in the console and the keys in the ignition.
The court heard Gribovsky couldn’t walk to the police vehicle without help, and they weren’t able to get breath samples from him.
A witness also reported seeing Gribovsky almost go into a ditch earlier while driving.
It was his fifth drunk-driving related offence.
Crown attorney Jeff MacDonald told the court Gribovsky wasn’t under a driving prohibition at the time, but he was on the interlock program.
The court heard Gribovsky was driving his father’s vehicle, which he shouldn’t have been because it didn’t have an interlock device.
Before sentencing Gribovsky, Orr said he could barely talk to the police and she questioned why he was driving in a “hammered” state.
“I think hammered would be the only description of it,” she said.
Orr said a pre-sentence report noted medication Gribovsky was taking to treat mental health issues could cause an elevated level of intoxication when mixed with alcohol.
She also said Gribovsky’s mental health and addiction issues needed to be addressed.
Gribovsky was posing a major threat to the public, and the court’s main consideration for sentencing was the protection of the public by keeping him off the road, Orr said.
Along with the jail time, Gribovsky will be on probation for three years, which includes a condition that he not drive during that time and he take whatever medications he is prescribed.
Gribvosky will be under a separate driving prohibition under the Criminal Code of Canada for three years.
He must also perform 100 hours of community service or, at his probation officer’s discretion, pay $10 per hour to the Queens County Addiction Centre.
