The following is a report about a bail hearing, which means the alleged facts discussed have not been proven in court.
A 24-year-old man arrested Sunday for allegedly hitting a police officer with his car’s side mirror while speeding away from a traffic stop was serving a sentence for a North Vancouver sexual assault at the time.
Police had set up a speed trap near Deer Lake Parkway and Royal Oak Avenue at about 3:35 p.m. on Sunday (Feb. 11), according to an emailed Burnaby RCMP statement.
One officer tried to pull over a vehicle for speeding, the statement said, but the driver allegedly fled, hitting the Mountie with the car mirror.
Police caught up with the suspect vehicle near Canada Way and Kensington Avenue and arrested the driver.
Jairus-Paul Covacha Sacramento, 24, now faces one count each of dangerous driving, flight from police and assaulting a police officer with his car.
Crown opposes release
During a bail hearing in Vancouver provincial court Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Kathleen Lafontaine said Sacramento shouldn't even have been in Burnaby Sunday because he is in the middle of serving a conditional sentence with house arrest for groping a woman on a North Vancouver trail in March 2022.
He was handed the six-month sentence and 18 months of probation for that offence in December.
But Lafontaine said Sacramento has already been charged twice with breaching the conditions of his sentence – not counting the Burnaby incident.
Lafontaine said police clocked Sacramento going 121 km/h in a 50 km/h zone Sunday, and an officer stepped onto the road to pull him over.
"The vehicle slowed down but then made a last-minute maneuver, hitting the officer on the right forearm with the side mirror of his vehicle," Lafontaine said. "He then drove up over the curb and then took off driving at an accelerated high rate of speed."
Lafontaine said Sacramento made a statement to police after talking to a lawyer, admitting he had been the driver and, knowing he was breaching his conditional sentence, hadn't stopped.
The Crown wants Sacramento to stay in jail until all his outstanding charges are dealt with.
"Given there have been multiple breaches of his CSO since it was imposed just in December and he's now attracted new criminal offences and was willing to drive so dangerously he struck a police officer in order to avoid detection of the CSO breach, it's my submission that he's not someone that is an appropriate release candidate," Lafontaine said.
'A different version'
Defence lawyer Tom Spettigue, however, said Sacramento has "a different version of what happened" on Royal Oak Avenue Sunday.
"I don't know how realistic it is that a police officer would jump out on foot in front of a car moving 150 km/h and try to waylay them into a parking lot," he said.
And, despite Sacramento's admissions to police, Spettigue said there are triable issues in the case.
He also pointed out that Sacramento went almost two years between the North Vancouver sex assault and his sentencing in December without racking up any more convictions
"I think there is a history of him being able to follow release conditions," Spettigue said.
Spettigue initially said Sacramento should be released on a $200 deposit.
After a break in the hearing, however, he said Sacramento wanted to adjourn the proceedings to come up with a larger deposit.
The bail hearing was ultimately abandoned and rescheduled for Thursday.
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