Father acquitted after ‘applying force’ to stop daughter taking ride with potentially drunk driver

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A father has been cleared of wrongdoing after he “applied force” to his daughter to stop her endangering her safety by taking a ride with a potentially drunk driver.

The August 20th verdict written by Judge Darin Reeves in Fort St. John ruled the father was not guilty of assault and uttering threats.

Written after a three-day trial in June, the document contains a ban on the publication of the identities of the father and daughter and their location.

Last year, the father was organizing branding and inoculation of 200 cattle and 200 calves at a barn on a rural ranch.

Family and neighbours assisted him and he provided food and beverages, including beer, to the crew.

The man’s daughter “repeatedly asked him to go out with an older girlfriend who had been drinking all day,” but he refused.

That sparked several arguments, and one of their heated exchanges was captured on a cell phone audio recorder.

The father remained at the barnyard at the end of the day, after most helpers departed. The daughter returned to the farmhouse, which is several miles from the barn.

The father, Reeves said, was obviously annoyed and upset and he did apply force in an attempt to raise his daughter to her feet and seat her in his truck, all against her will.

“This force was applied, however, for corrective purposes. [The father] was fearful that [his daughter] would continue in her attempts to be transported by a driver he feared was intoxicated, thus placing her safety at risk.”

Reeves said it was “entirely reasonable” that the man felt disrespected and became frustrated and angry.

He threatened to report his daughter’s friend to the police for impaired driving if she drove her to the town where her mother lived. The friend instead brought the man’s daughter to her home and the daughter was later transported to her mother’s home by a sober driver.

Reeves said the daughter’s testimony “varied considerably,” while the father testified in his own defence and much of what he said was “plausible.”

“In all circumstances,” Reeves decided, he used reasonable force intended to restrain, control or express disapproval of his daughter’s behaviour.

“I do not find that [the father] struck, kicked or slapped his daughter, or that he used or threatened to use an object,” Reeves said.