CALEB NICKERSON
MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC Feb. 17, 2021
An Otter Lake man has been found guilty of public mischief and sentenced to 16 months of jail in relation to a fatal vehicle crash in 2018.
On April 10, of that year, a car was found in a ditch on a straight section of Hwy. 148 outside of Quyon. A 26 year-old Gatineau woman was killed in the crash. Christopher Bérubé of Otter Lake was the other occupant of the vehicle and was 27 years-old at the time. He was taken to hospital to be treated for shock.
At the time, he led officers to believe that he was . . .
the passenger and the deceased was driving, but over the course of the investigation officers determined he was actually the driver. He was charged with public mischief on May 8, 2019, and turned himself in to authorities before he was released on $1,000 bail.
At the time, MRC des Collines Police spokesman Sgt. Martin Fournel said that police were tipped off by Bérubé’s lack of cooperation with investigators.
“He was not too cooperative, even after many months or weeks after the accident,” Fournel said in May 2019. “He didn’t really want to talk to our detective.”
At the time of the crash, Bérubé had a suspended license and was prohibited from driving. The car was a friend’s and did not have valid plates.
A statement released by police on Feb. 18 said that Bérubé was sentenced the previous day and noted that since the investigators were unable to determine the cause of the crash, there would be no further charges against him.
