'Web of lies, deception'

UPDATE: 1:05 p.m.

“I find Mr. Brodie's evidence to be a convoluted, entangled web of lies and deception within which there are layers of truth,” said Justice Martha Devlin while delivering a guilty verdict in Donald Brodie's case Friday.

After many weeks of trial, Justice Devlin determined Brodie was telling the truth when he confessed in 2014 to driving a black Eagle Talon through a police check stop in the early hours of Dec. 6, 2013 and eventually striking and permanently injuring pedestrian Steve Kania.

Brodie's subsequent claim that his confession was a lie to get the charges against Nathan Fahl dropped was found to be untrue.

Brodie was found guilty of criminal negligence in operation of a vehicle causing bodily harm and operating a motor vehicle in a dangerous manner while being pursued by police, but he was found not guilty of two counts of obstruction of police. The obstruction of police charges stemmed from him telling police he wasn't driving following the incident.

Justice Devlin's ruling hinged on Brodie's confession letter writing campaign while he was in custody on another matter, beginning in January 2014 and carrying through until November 2014.

He sent five confession letters to police and seven to local media. 

While Brodie testified he had written the letters to get the charges against his friend Fahl dropped, Justice Devlin found his explanation “absurd,” as he wouldn't have continued to claim to be the driver into November, when Fahl's charges where dropped in June.

One of the letters Brodie sent in November was to one of the officers involved in the chase, who Brodie believed was partly responsible for the injuries to Kania.

“At least I have enough integrity to do the right thing and tell the truth and take responsibility for my actions, not you,” Brodie wrote.

This confessional attitude did not last long though.

Brodie had admitted to drinking six beers and doing heroin the night of the chase. In his confession letters, Brodie claimed Fahl was passed out in the passenger seat after doing GHB. 

Brodie's defence lawyer John Gustafson requested a presentence report before a sentence is delivered, to demonstrate to Justice Devlin how he's “starting on a different path.”

Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 15. 

ORIGINAL: 11:55 a.m.

A judge has found Donald Brodie guilty on charges stemming from a police chase in Kelowna that ended when a pedestrian was struck.

Brodie was found guilty, Friday, of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and flight from police causing bodily harm.

Justice Martha Devlin found Brodie not guilty of two counts of obstruction.

Brodie was charged after he confessed to being behind the wheel of a car that ran a police check stop on Springfield Road in December 2013, eventually hitting and injuring a paper carrier.

He later claimed his confession to police and media outlets was a lie.

Brodie testified he lied to get his friend Nathan Fahl, who had been charged with the crime, out of trouble.

Devlin has ordered pre-sentence reports, and expects to deliver a sentence in about six weeks.