Cruiser joyride, escape attempts cost 18-year-old Mohamed Seud Mohmaud 30 days in jail

Source: Ottawa Citizen

Sexual favours in the park not a factor, judge says

ONTARIO - An 18-year-old man who led police on a high-speed chase in a stolen police car after getting caught with his pants down in a Gloucester park has been sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Mohamed Seud Mohmaud was still handcuffed when he squeezed through an open glass partition separating the front and back seats of the Ottawa police cruiser on Aug. 14 and sped away, crashing into a concrete barrier and a tree before leading police on a pursuit that reached speeds over 100 km/h and involved the running of several red lights and stop signs.

Mohmaud, who later abandoned the stolen police car, was eventually arrested when a man whose bicycle he tried to steal tackled him and held him for police. Mohmaud — who was ultimately brought down by a police dog after he again tried to flee — continued to resist and kick at officers before they handcuffed him a second time, this time with his hands behind his back.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Mohmaud had been left unattended in the still-running police car after officers found him sitting next to a young woman, with his genitals exposed, in the back seat of a Jeep Cherokee that was parked in a lot at Sieveright Park on Sable Ridge Drive.

Court heard the officers had left him alone in the police car when an intoxicated woman, who had earlier been arrested for causing a disturbance in the park, began screaming in the back of another police car.

Mohmaud, a tall and slender Yemeni who had his hair tied back in a short ponytail, stood silently in the prisoner’s box as Ontario Court Judge Peter Coulson lectured him about the lives he put at risk.

Court heard one police officer had to roll out of the way to avoid being run over after he kicked out the cruiser’s window in an attempt to apprehend Mohmaud.

“Once you started down that road, you’ve got to know there is an entire angry police force behind you, and somewhat embarrassed, too,” said Coulson. “You ran and put other people’s lives at risk when you did it. Anyone who had the bad luck to get in front of you on a residential street could have died.”

While Crown prosecutors had asked for 10 months in jail, Coulson said he was willing to “cut him a little slack” and instead sentenced Mohmaud to a total of seven months in jail.

Mohmaud, who pleaded guilty Friday to escaping lawful custody, failing to stop for police, theft over $5,000 and a breach of probation, was given six months’ credit for the time he had already spent in custody, leaving him 30 days left to serve.

Coulson also warned Mohmaud’s lawyer, Felix Weekes, not to lay blame on the police when he questioned whether it was “normal practice” to leave prisoners unattended in police cars while the keys were still in the ignition.

The judge also suggested the fact that Mohmaud was receiving sexual favours prior to the chase wasn’t an aggravating factor in the case, as the Crown suggested.

“What 18-year-old wouldn’t, if the female were willing?” asked the 70-year-old judge. “Even I remember being 18.”