Driving stoned, missing court nets 30-day sentence

A Brandon man who almost sideswiped a police cruiser while driving high on cannabis in 2022 was sentenced to one month behind bars on Monday.

Richard Nieradka, 68, was charged with impaired driving and three counts of failing to attend court — one of them being his sentencing date.

“The real problem here is he got stoned severely enough to register on the (drug recognition evaluation) and almost hit an on-duty police officer,” Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup said in Brandon provincial court.

Lonstrup said Nieradka doesn’t have the benefit of an early guilty plea for the impaired charge since he only pleaded guilty during his trial after hearing the evidence from the police officer who arrested him.

The Crown said it’s an aggravating factor that this offence is from 2022 and didn’t go to trial until spring 2025, and that it was because of Nieradka’s lack of keeping track of his court dates.

For the impaired charge, Lonstrup asked the court to consider a jail sentence in the range of 30 to 60 days.

“Your Honour has said many times, police never know when they leave for any given shift if they’re going to come back alive,” he said. “They expose themselves to all manner and nature of risk, and this is a particularly ornery one.”

Lonstrup suggested a fine for the first two failing-to-attend charges but said the Crown had trouble with Nieradka’s excuse for the missed sentencing date on June 26, for which he suggested 30 days in jail.

Nieradka said he didn’t know he had to be in court that day and thought the matter had been dealt with, which Lonstrup had a difficult time believing since the judge gave Nieradka clear instructions on when he needed to be back.

“I don’t believe anybody could have reasonably walked away from that conversation and thought, ‘Oh, this is over.’ He would have been punishment free,” Lonstrup said. “One has to say with Mr. Nieradka, enough is enough with you missing these dates.

“There are two things he needs to learn. Keep track of your dates and don’t drive stoned,” he said.

Defence lawyer Bob Harrison said Nieradka has no prior criminal record and outlined his “quite impressive” background.

He said Nieradka went to college and got his Red Seal in cooking. He also taught ammunition technician courses in Shilo for 30 years and has degrees related to coal mining.

He said he’s currently self-employed doing landscaping and volunteers helping people quit using crystal meth.

Harrison noted that Nieradka has a medical prescription to use marijuana for his post-traumatic stress disorder

“Obviously he had too much on that occasion,” he said.

Nieradka was diagnosed with cancer and is waiting on a call from Winnipeg to get chemotherapy, Harrison said, adding that he’s going through a difficult time right now.

Harrison asked the court to consider fines for the impaired charge and the first two failing-to-attend charges and use the eight days of custody he has to his credit for the most recent failure to attend.

When Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta gave Nieradka a chance to speak, he repeatedly apologized for missing his last appearance.

He said he was told he would be sent a letter from probation services and constantly checked his mail. Hewitt-Michta said that was not true.

“I apologize for my lack of whatever you want to call it, but I just didn’t know I had to come to court again. I totally misunderstood when I left. I’m sorry,” he said.

Hewitt-Michta said that while she was persuaded to sentence him to less than the Crown suggested, a fine wouldn’t be sufficient.

“What’s aggravating here is the level of your impairment, which was significant, and the near collision with the police officer,” she said.

She sentenced Nieradka to pay a fine of $150 for the first failure to attend and $300 for the second, along with 15 days in custody for the third and 15 days for the impaired driving.

She also put in place a 15-month driving prohibition.

“I appreciate that you have a prescription for using cannabis for medical reasons, but if you are doing that, you need to not be getting behind the wheel and endangering other people — it’s not permission for you to do that,” she said.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com