Three years jail for man shot and Tasered last year

A Saskatchewan man who was pulled over for driving too slow while high on cocaine before leading police on a chase through Banff after being shot and eventually Tasered was sentenced to three years in jail yesterday.

Jeffery Allen Giest pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving, leaving the scene of an accident, evading police and possession of marijuana in Canmore Provincial Court in front of Judge Judy Shriar.

Shriar took issue with Giest’s “horrific” driving that day and the fact it is his fifth conviction for dangerous driving, imposing an additonal three-year prohibition after he is released from his jail sentence.

“Mr. Giest has had driving issues going on 40 years,” said the judge. “He can’t seem to control himself with alcohol, drugs and cars.

“I appreciate it started slow but it was enourmously dangerous to everyone in that corridor, the town and police.”

The 60-year-old, who needed the assistance of a cane as the bullet in his hip has not been removed yet, testified on Feb. 11 last year he learned his mother in Flin Flon had broken her hip while he was visiting friends in Kelowna.

He said he mistakenly accepted a bag of cocaine from his friends to keep him awake for the drive to Saskatoon, where she was being transferred by air ambulance.

“I would like to apologize for my behaviour that day to the Banff and Canmore police,” Giest said. “I am really not like that… I was on cocaine.

“I hadn’t touched the drug in a long time and I would have gotten there quicker if I hadn’t done the drugs.”

Crown prosecutor Sarah Stewart pointed to the fact he repeatedly attempted to evade policy throughout the entire incident as an aggravating factor.

“The Crown’s position is Mr. Giest clearly knew he was being followed by police and being asked to stop,” Stewart said. “He had the choice to stop when police first tried to pull him over and at every point in time he chose the option to evade police.

“He was even shot at one point in the thigh and if there was a time to stop that was it.”

Defence counsel Hershel Wolch said the facts of the case are strange because his client was pulled over for driving too slow. He said Giest was concerned because he did not want to be caught in possession of cocaine and marijuana and was trying to get rid of it.

“I would submit being shot and Tasered could be considered mitigating to some degree.”

Giest was seen by RCMP driving 40 km/h in a grey GMC Envoy on the Trans-Canada Highway two kilometers west of Banff heading towards the town before noon.

After three minutes of attempting to pull him over he stopped but while officers waited for back up he sped off towards Banff.

RCMP in Banff caught sight of his vehicle on Tunnel Mountain Road traveling the speed limit but veering from left to right.

Stewart said Giest drove a circular route through Banff avoiding one spike belt while droving through a stop sign, over a sidewalk and across a median.

He was eventually boxed in with the help of a Parks Canada warden and two officers approached his vehicle with guns drawn. Stewart said the officer on the driver’s side threw in a cellphone, which Giest had been asking for, while the one on the passenger side reached inside in an attempt to take the keys from the ignition.

She said at that moment Giest took out a hypodermic syringe and injected himself and the officer on the passenger side discharged his weapon shooting him in the pelvis. At the time police indicated the officer perceived that Giest was attempting to stab him when he fired.

Giest took off again down Banff Avenue driving towards the highway with police in pursuit. He avoided a second spike belt at the Minnewanka entrance and drove towards Canmore.

A spike belt at the park gates managed to puncture the front and rear tires on the passenger side of the vehicle but did not stop it. Giest then crossed the median driving the wrong way down the highway and ended up in the hamlet of Harvie Heights where he was Tasered before being apprehended.