By GALEN EAGLE
/Examiner Staff Writer
A probationary member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang got time served and probation as one of three passengers in a December car crash in East City.
Wayne Neil Crowell, 36, of Cannington, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Ontario Court of Justice to possessing hashish and breaching his probation conditions after he and two men were inside a car that collided with a hydro pole in the area of Hunter and Burnham streets outside the Quaker Oats office building.Police arrived at the collision just after 8 p.m. and found two men, including Crowell, lying beside the car, Crown attorney Laura Grant said.
Crowell was bleeding from the nose and mouth and would later spend weeks in hospital being treated for a broken hip and fractured ribs, court heard.
Footprints in the snow led police to the third man – Keith Harry Nolan of Richmond Hill – and a loaded restricted handgun buried in the snow under a tree.
Nolan pleaded guilty and was sentenced last week to four years in a federal prison after pleading guilty to five charges including possession of the gun and obstructing justice for trying to pass a note to a co-accused in jail offering to take the fall in exchange for cash for him and his family.
Upon his arrest, police found a small amount of hash on Crowell, who was sporting a "probationary member" Outlaws patch on his vest and a belt buckle reading: "support your local outlaws," court heard.
Crowell was bound by a probation order not to possess drugs at the time.
Mr. Justice Ray Taillon sentenced Crowell to 61 days of time served and placed him on probation for 18 months.
Co-accused Mark Andrew Cleary, 29, of Milroy Dr., will return to court June 7.
geagle@peterboroughexaminer.com
