CHIEF SAYS SORRY BUT WON'T RETRACT CLAIM GIRL IMPAIRED

The toxicology report never said Janette Montgomery was impaired the day
she died.

York Regional Police issued a media release last week clarifying a
toxicology report from the Centre for Forensic Sciences did not say the
Whitchurch-Stouffville teenager was impaired when she lost control of her
car and crashed last August.

But the force's refusal to retract the claim she was impaired at all still
has the grieving family upset.

"They've admitted they made an error. The toxicology report never said she
was impaired and they've admitted that," Janette's mother, Karen
Montgomery, said. "But what I wanted was to clear her name and they haven't
done that."

Chief Armand La Barge said he personally called Mrs. Montgomery to
apologize for the grief the error caused, but did not want to argue the
impairment issue.

"We just wanted to officially clarify that the report from the Centre for
Forensic Sciences did not indicate she was impaired," he said.

"(The question of whether she was impaired) is something we do not want to
get into. All I can say is it is possible someone may have come to a
different conclusion with the same set of facts. We are hopeful the
clarification will assist the family with getting on with the grieving
process. What happened here is a young girl lost her life in a tragic
situation and both Staff-Sgt. Tom Carrique and I have personally apologized
to Mrs. Montgomery for our error and expressed our sympathy to the family."

Janette was giving a friend a ride home shortly after 9 a.m. Aug. 29 when
she changed lanes to pass another car on Green Lane in East Gwillimbury.

It was raining heavily and she lost control, crossed in front of the other
car and hit its front bumper. Her Cadillac left the road and hit a pole.
The Cardinal Carter Catholic High School student was taken to hospital,
where she died.

Three months later, York Regional Police issued a media release stating a
toxicology report from the Centre of Forensic Science indicated Janette had
drugs and alcohol in her system and was impaired.

But toxicology reports do not indicate impairment, only a level of drugs or
alcohol present in a test sample of a subject's blood, urine or saliva. As
such, a copy of the toxicology report obtained by the York Region Newspaper
Group did not indicate she was impaired, only that she had levels of THC
and trace amounts of ethanol and benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine,
in her blood.

Claiming police jumped to conclusions without scientific proof, Mrs.
Montgomery demanded officers retract the assertion her daughter was impaired.

But while police admitted the original media release was wrong about the
toxicology report, traffic unit Staff-Sgt. Carrique said the force stood by
the determination of a drug recognition expert, a breath alcohol technician
and a collision investigator that Janette was impaired. The latest news
release does not retract that claim.

"They haven't really solved the problem, they've just tried to put a
Band-Aid on it. I appreciate that the chief called personally to apologize,
but they really haven't retracted anything. They have just apologized for
all the grief they've caused," Mrs. Montgomery said.

"It's tough. It's very upsetting. Nobody should be put through this. But we
got them to admit they made an error and that's probably the most we're
going to get. I'm not sure what to do. We may not want to keep dredging
this up because what are we really going to accomplish? All I really wanted
was to clear my daughter's name. She was not a bad person. They just made
it look like she was."