Roughriders QB Dolegala found not guilty of driving impaired

Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Jake Dolegala has been found not guilty of driving while impaired.

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Regina provincial court Judge Noah Evanchuk delivered the decision on Tuesday afternoon. The quarterback did not attend court in person, instead attending remotely by phone.

He was charged in connection with an incident on Sept. 17, 2022, when the quarterback stopped at a Co-op gas station in Emerald Park, just outside Regina, to fuel up his truck. Court heard the RCMP had received calls from people who said they were concerned about whether he was impaired.

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Evanchuk’s decision included a careful reference to the burden on the Crown to prove an offence beyond a reasonable doubt in criminal trials.

Based on the admissible evidence, the judge said he was unconvinced that the football player was driving while impaired.

Court had heard Dolegala appeared confused regarding payment for fuel, was overly friendly, lingered at the gas pump and may have been slightly unsteady momentarily after police detained him.

The Crown presented evidence of an admission by Dolegala to the arresting officer that he’d consumed alcohol earlier in the day, but with no evidence about time, rate or effects of consumption, it was of “no utility,” the judge wrote.

He considered the evidence together and in totality, he added.

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“When I do this, I regard these indicia of impairment as qualitatively weak, equivocal and equally consistent to someone who is not impaired. That is, there are alternatives for the indicia other than impairment that are reasonably possible in the circumstances. Indeed, in this case there are alternatives for the indicia that are more reasonable for sobriety,” he said.

The trial heard that it wasn’t uncommon for customers to have difficulty paying at the pump. Given that Dolegala was driving a truck with a New York licence plate, it’s possible his foreign credit card didn’t work, Evanchuk noted.

“Confusion is a subjective observation.”

There was a lack of evidence about why he lingered at the pumps, and his friendliness presents little proof of impairment, the judge said.

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The experienced RCMP officer who arrested the quarterback testified Dolegala showed “no outward signs of impairment,” he added. “He concluded, in his words, and I quote: ‘He didn’t seem intoxicated.’ ”