Mom of N.S. crash victim urges leniency for man convicted of dangerous driving

HALIFAX - A grieving mother urged a judge to show compassion for a young man who was sentenced Thursday for dangerous driving causing the death of her son.
"Let him go on to be the man that I know he can be," Catherine Metzler said of Michael Scott MacEachern, 22, in her remarks to Justice Arthur LeBlanc in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
"It was a tragedy that my son was killed but I believe there was also a part of Scottie killed that night. I think the best of him has survived and I think that he has the potential to be a really good man.
"I would like to see him able to move on with his life. I know that in time, with God's help, he will be able to forgive himself for that night, as I have forgiven him."
LeBlanc, who called Metzler's plea "remarkable," accepted a joint recommendation from lawyers and gave MacEachern a conditional sentence of two years less a day.
Michael Metzler, 42, of Enfield died in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 102 near Lower Sackville on the night of Oct. 26, 2006.
His car was being driven by MacEachern when it went out of control on a curve, flipped several times and rolled over a guardrail and down an embankment of rocks, landing on its roof.
MacEachern pleaded guilty last February to dangerous driving causing death.
In an agreed statement of facts read into the court record, Crown attorney Terri Lipton said the vehicle was travelling an estimated 150 to 160 kilometres an hour before it crashed.
Defence lawyer Lance Scaravelli said that in 35 years of practising law, he had never before seen the mother of a deceased victim "come forth and say the words that Mrs. Metzler said today about the accused."
"Mrs. Metzler is a very kind and compassionate person and I think she realizes, knowing the MacEachern family, that Scott is not a criminal," Scaravelli told the court.
MacEachern dropped out of school after the crash but is completing his Grade 12 equivalency, with the aim of obtaining a trade.
"I'm sorry for what I did," said MacEachern, who wept quietly as Metzler addressed the court. "I don't know what else to say."
The judge also felt compelled to comment on Metzler's statement.
"It shows a degree of compassion which is quite remarkable," he said. "It would be easy to be bitter over the loss, but she has not shown any of that today."
MacEachern will be on house arrest at his mother's home for the first six months of the sentence and then will have to follow an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for the next six months.
He has to perform 100 hours of community service, undergo mental health counselling and any other therapy deemed necessary by his sentence supervisor, and abstain from the consumption of alcohol or drugs.
MacEachern, who was also prohibited from driving for three years, embraced Metzler before he left the courtroom.