Calgary police officer let drunk driver off because he spotted AA sobriety chips, trial hears

UPDATE addedJune 5, 2018:Mark McCulloughwasacquitted in June 2018after a judge found he had acted well within his discretion as a CPS officer during a check on welfare call.

Even though she was slumped over in the driver's seat of her car, drunk on vodka, Caren Lileikis caught a break after a Calgary police officer spotted her Alcoholics Anonymous sobriety chips, the judge in Const. Mark McCullough's trial heard Thursday.

McCullough, 44, is on trial for obstruction of justice and breach of trust, accused ofhelping Lileikisescape an impaired driving charge.

The two later had a sexual encounter, according to Lileikis.

• Calgary police officer let mistress off drunk driving charge, ex-fiance says at trial

Lileikis testified on the second day of McCullough's trial Thursday via a closed-circuit TV feed from Ontario.

In November 2015, Lileikis was in the depths of her alcohol addiction when she got drunk on a mickey and several mini bottles of vodka and dove into a parking lot in the southeast community of Cranston, where a passerby found her slumped over the steering wheel.

The call had comeinto 911 dispatch as a "check on welfare" and was changed to an impaired driving code once officers arrived on scene, according to evidence called by prosecutor Leah Boyd.

Breath techscalled off

Calgary Police Service officersincludingMcCullougharrived and breathalyzer technicians were initially called.

But McCullough recognizedLileikis as a witness to a robbery at the Home Depot and he spotted a couple tokens fromAlcoholics Anonymous (AA) that were meant to celebrate her sobriety.

"He said he was going to cut me a bit of a break because he saw my AA chips and he knew me from Home Depot, so he was going to drive me home," saidLileikis.

McCullough had the callre-categorized as a suspended driving code a lesser offence and the officer called off CPS breath technicians, according to an earlier witness.

Sexual relationship begins

He then droveLileikis home and walked her inside. The two hugged.

"I was very grateful that he drove me home and I wasn't charged, so I hugged him and I thanked him," she testified.

McCullough offered to help pay to getLileikis's car out of the impound lot and to retrieve her licence before the three-day suspension was up, even though he would have to "sneak it out" of the District 8 office where it was being held.

But when defence lawyer Cory Wilson cross-examinedLileikis, she said she wasn't sure how many days had passed when McCullough showed up. AndLileikis said it was only after she "nagged" him to help that he picked her up, returned her licence anddrove her to the lot.

From that point on, the two texted every day. They met up for coffee, and on one occasion they met in his car, outside her home, where they kissed and she performed oral sex on him.

Lileikis's trouble with alcohol continued, and weeks later she did get charged with impaired driving. Her relationship with McCullough fizzled out after McCullough's fiancee found out about their relationship.

McCullough acquitted of assault

That fiancee was Jessica Nelson, a 911 dispatcher who happened to take the call the night McCullough savedLileikis from the impaired driving charge.

When Nelson discovered McCullough had cheated on her withLileikis, she pressed him for more information.

'Well there was that impaired,"Nelson saidhe told her. "What are you supposed to do when you find a friend behind the wheel of a car? I had to take care of that."

When the couple broke up in November 2016, Nelson went to police alleging he had assaulted her. She also told investigators aboutLileikis, kicking off an anti-corruption investigation.

McCullough was charged with assault but was acquitted after trial.

Wilson asked Lileikis about the time period between September 2015the Home Depot robbery when she and McCulloughfirst met and November 2015, when here-categroizedthe impaired driving call.

"If someone were to say you were friends with him, that would be incorrect, right?" asked Wilson.

Lileikisagreed.

Thetrial is set to wrap up on Friday.