(ADAM PROSKIW / iNFOnews.ca)

The case of a B.C. RCMP officer that didn't get prosecuted for drunk driving even though he was found passed out in a Burger King drive-thru "smells-like" police protecting their own, says a Vernon defence lawyer.

Claire Mastop questions why Const. Blaise Picketts wasn't charged with impaired driving, assaulting a police officer, along with a possible firearm charge.

"It smells like police protecting their own, and not giving all the evidence or not investigating particularly hard," Mastop told iNFOnews.ca. "That's just guessing, but it sure smells that way."

Details of Const. Picketts have just been made public but date back to April 2020.

READ MORE: Drunk B.C. RCMP officer who passed out in drive-thru keeps job

The RCMP officer on his day off took his police dog, and gun, and headed around to an RCMP friend's house in Langley.

After a day's drinking at several colleagues' houses, he drove back to Maple Ridge, scraping his vehicle on the way before he passed out in the drive-thru of a Burger King.

The staff tried to wake him up, but failed and called the police.

His breath stunk of booze, he had open alcohol in the vehicle, and with bloodshot eyes slurred his words.

He attempted to knee a police officer in the groin and grabbed the handcuffs when an officer was trying to arrest him.

He refused a breathalyzer test and gave the middle finger to the camera when police were taking his mug shot.

Finally, the police got Const. Picketts into handcuffs and forced him into a cell.

However, after seemingly breaking multiple laws from drunk driving to assaulting a police officer, Const. Picketts was only charged with failing to provide a breath sample and resisting arrest.

He pleaded guilty to resisting arrest and was given three months of probation. Crown prosecutors stayed the charge of refusing to provide a breathalyzer sample.

The RCMP Conduct Board later fined him a month's pay along with 15 days of annual leave, and he managed to hang on to his job.

But he was never even charged with impaired driving, a factor that has infuriated many and gives a strong impression that the RCMP is treated differently.

"In a case like this with so many police witnesses and such an aggravated set of facts, the apparent undercharging seems really astounding," Mastop said.

Mastop said she's sure Crown prosecutors would not have given the officer any favouritism.

However, she points out the Crown can only work with the evidence provided to them from the police.

"(The) police put forward their report that's supposed to include all of the salient details of their investigation, and if Crown didn't have the details necessary for an impaired (driving) charge then they wouldn't be able to proceed with it," she said. "That's where I think something smelly happened."

In an agreed statement of facts included in an RCMP Conduct Board decision, Const. Picketts admitted he'd been drinking all day before he got behind the wheel.

"If the Crown had available to them all the information that the disciplinary panel did, we'd be seeing a different result, and if they didn't (have the information) why didn't they? There were enough police witnesses there," she said.

The RCMP Conduct Board's decision says "it is well established that police officers are held to a higher standard than the general public."

However, judging by the repercussions that Const. Picketts faced after his booze-fueled day, the statement rings hollow.

"If Joe and Jane public acted the way this officer did... they'd be prosecuted to the hilt. They would lose their job, they would do jail time, they would be forever on the radar of police because it would have a note on their file saying this person assaults police officers," Mastop said.

None of these things happened to Const. Picketts.

With an average of 24 people killed on B.C.'s roads every month due to drunk driving, MADD Canada described the case "disturbing."

MADD Canada Regional Manager Tracy Crawford said it's also aggravating that the case involved an RCMP officer.

"They see what happens in impaired driving crashes, they see the victims, they see the families, they see the devastation more than anybody else in the community," Crawford said. "We find it very disturbing... when someone is in that line of work, it's disappointing."

According to the B.C. Coroners Service 2,910  people were killed on B.C.'s roads due to drunk driving between 2010 and 2019. An average of 291 a year, and 24 per month.

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