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A 23-year veteran of OPP arrested for impaired

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A long-serving OPP officer found himself on the other end of a breathalyzer Sunday.

On May 10 at approximately 3 p.m., Nipissing West OPP officers responded to a traffic complaint on Highway 17 in West Nipissing.  

Officers found the vehicle stopped on Highway 17 just east of Sandy Falls Road on a portion of the highway known as the Sturgeon Stretch.

Investigation revealed the driver had been consuming alcohol and was arrested.  

Provincial Constable Jaak Valiots,  48, a 23-year member serving at Temiskaming OPP Detachment, was off duty at the time. He's been charged with operation while impaired - blood alcohol concentration (80 plus).

Valiots is scheduled to appear at the Ontario Court of Justice on July 21 in North Bay. He was issued a 90-day administrative driver's licence suspension, and the vehicle was impounded for seven days.  

It's not the first time Valiots has been charged with impaired.

He pleaded guilty to driving impaired by alcohol and failing to provide a breath sample in Huntsville back in 2016 after police found him stuck in a ditch on Highway 141 in Utterson just after 10 p.m. on Saturday, June 11.

He was off-duty at the time but was a constable with Almaguin Highlands OPP. 

This latest charge marks the 21st driver charged under Criminal Impaired Driving Laws in the Nipissing West Detachment area in 2020. In 2019, Nipissing West OPP charged 62 drivers.

 

– BayToday.ca