Police testimony continues at trial for woman charged in death of Baeleigh Maurice

A Saskatoon police officer with 15 years of experience took the stand on Wednesday, the second day of the judge-alone trial of 29-year-old Taylor Ashley Kennedy.

Kennedy is charged with impaired driving while exceeding the prescribed blood-drug concentration of THC, causing the death of nine-year-old Baeleigh Maurice.

Maurice died after she was struck by a pickup truck while riding her scooter across a marked crosswalk on 33rd Street West and Avenue G on Sept. 9, 2021.

Constable Shelby McLean told the court that during her time as an officer up to that point, she had been involved in 15 to 20 impaired driving investigations during. None of them involved a death, and she said she wasn’t trained to administer sobriety tests or devices for either drugs or alcohol.

When McLean heard about a serious collision involving a child just after 9:00 a.m., she said she decided to drive to the location of the crash even though she was not specifically dispatched there.

Calling it a “chaotic scene,” McLean testified were  family members “yelling and crying,” and, after asking other officers at the scene where she could help, she found Kennedy on the passenger side of a pickup truck with another police constable, Blake Atkinson.

McLean said Kennedy was taken to her vehicle where she admitted that she’d vaped marijuana the night before the crash, had micro- dosed on magic mushrooms, and was on medication for anxiety and bipolar disorder.

McLean told the court that once that admission had taken place, she told other senior officers at the scene about the possibility of impairment, but it still took until around 10:30 a.m. for a drug screen demand to be made and it wasn’t until nearly 11:00 a.m. before a positive result was returned.

She said she informed Kennedy that at some point she would have to make a statement, but didn’t consider it her responsibility to take the accident report and didn’t note any obvious signs of impairment.

Once the result from the roadside test turned up positive for marijuana, Kennedy was arrested, read her Charter rights, and told that she would be taken for further drug testing at Royal University Hospital.

According to the officer, Kennedy contacted both a lawyer and her mother.

Under cross examination, McLean was questioned why Kennedy was not informed earlier that she was not free to leave the scene of the accident, nor was she advised she could call a lawyer or read her rights. McLean responded that it hadn’t occurred to her earlier.

Throughout the testimony, Kennedy sat in the prisoner’s box audibly sobbing, sometimes with a blue blanket wrapped around her.

Smudging ceremonies approved by judge

Late Wednesday morning, a lawyer for Rochelle Cook, Maurice’s mother, asked the provincial court judge for permission to conduct smudging ceremonies.

She said they would help not only Cook, but also her supporters and other family members.

The request for an outdoor ceremony on Wednesday was approved, along with a ceremony to take place in the courtroom on Thursday morning before the third day of the trial.

Outside the courthouse, Cook told reporters she was having a difficult time hearing the information presented in court and seeing Kennedy in the same room.

“It’s really traumatizing. Her energy is huge,” she said.

“The courtroom is a very hostile environment, and that’s why I’m glad we reached out and did the application for the smudge.”

Cook also said she was frustrated because she wasn’t at the accident scene the day her daughter died.

“It really hurts my soul, because I don’t know what happened that day,” she added.

The trial continues on Thursday.