A Quebec provincial police officer who’s now had three trials for his role in a fatal high-speed crash in 2012 has been acquitted.
François Laurin was acquitted Friday on the initial charges of dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm in the collision that killed 25-year-old Éric Rompré and seriously injured his girlfriend Marie-Ève Bossé.
The veteran Sûreté du Québec (SQ) officer had been rushing to the Montebello Rockfest to help a person in distress when his cruiser struck the vehicle carrying Rompré and Bossé near Papineauville, Que.
At the time of the crash, Laurin was driving about 180 km/h, or roughly twice the 90 km/h speed limit along that stretch of Highway 148.
In a Gatineau courtroom Friday, Justice Gaston Paul Langevin said the officer’s actions fell within the range of what’s considered an acceptable police response to such a call.
He noted Laurin sped up to pass the other vehicle because he believed it was pulling over. Instead, the vehicle driven by Rompré suddenly turned left into Laurin’s path.
A long legal saga
In 2017, Laurin was sentenced in 2017 to one year in jail after being found guilty of dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm.
The Quebec Court of Appeal quashed the conviction the following year, claiming the judge had failed to properly analyze whether Laurin’s actions were truly dangerous, and ordered a new trial.
In 2019, he was instead found guilty on a simple dangerous driving charge. Both sides appealed — the Crown to try for conviction on the original charges, and the defence for a full acquittal — and an appeals court ordered this third trial in 2022.
There is a 30-day window to appeal Friday’s decision.