Coaldale man jailed after near-lethal standoff with local cop

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

On Sept. 24, a Coaldale man showed up in court expecting to serve an eight month jail sentence for an ugly confrontation with a local cop that nearly turned fatal. Things did not go according to plan, and during the two hours it took to resolve the accused’s sentence, a drama unfolded as Judge Day turned the tables on the prosecution and defense. Day rejected their proposed sentence, and called for spoken testimony from the officer who found himself face to face with a man in a violent situation in the dead of night.

 On April 2, just before midnight, an officer with the TPS conducted a traffic stop, during which the driver was identified as Robert Lee Stetar, 62, of Coaldale. The officer requested a breathalyzer sample from Stetar and the man refused. Stetar soon became agitated, raised his voice, and told the officer, “I’ve got a knife. I’ll (expletive) stab you,” and began to reach down and to his left in the driver’s door cubby. The officer shouted at him, telling him not to grab the knife but to step out of the vehicle. Stetar threw a screwdriver in the officer’s direction who then observed a large knife in the man’s left hand. The officer drew his pistol, pointed it at Stetar and ordered him to put the knife down. Stetar waved the knife, shouted incoherently, and then pushed open the door and advanced toward the officer making stabbing motions and raising the knife above his head with the blade pointed at the officer.

 The officer backed away, repeatedly ordering the man to drop the knife. The initial traffic stop occurred at a dark yard and the officer retreated backwards to create distance and draw the situation out of the black and under the streetlights. He radioed for backup and another TPS officer responded, arriving quickly at the scene, then rushing from his vehicle, deploying his Taser, and striking Stetar with it. The officers took him to the ground and apprehended him.

As part of the Crown prosecutor’s sentencing evidence, the court was shown compelling dashcam footage from the second responding officer’s patrol vehicle. The footage showed the officer’s headlights racing through the dark streets with sirens blaring and arriving at the scene in just under a minute after a few quick turns.

 The dashcam captured a crucial moment, when the officer’s vehicle slowed abruptly and two men passed directly across the field of vision through the windshield; Stetar on the left, advancing with a knife held out in front of him, and the initial officer retreating with his gun pointed at Stetar. The second responding officer is heard on his radio saying, “He’s got a knife in his hand right now,” and then bursting from the vehicle, flashing past the dashcam. The subsequent audio captured the shouting of orders, followed by curses and muffled sounds during the takedown. “We’ve got one in custody,” the second responding officer is heard saying a minute later.

 Stetar was charged with possessing a weapon posing danger to the public, threats to cause death or bodily harm, assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, and obstructing a peace officer.

“Your honour, the elements are admitted,” said Wade Hlady, defence counsel for Stetar.

 Prosecutor Dawn Janecke remarked, “Certainly (the initial officer’s) calm peace of mind in that situation…instead of taking more serious measures, as far as an assessment of risk, that could have escalated quite a bit more quickly. Other decisions certainly were available to him that could have ended much more seriously for this accused than they did.”

 “He made the choice, being that he was in a residential area, that behind the accused he could see an individual watching from their home inside their window. He was concerned about striking a house, so he made choices other than to discharge his weapon, which on any risk assessment, he certainly was at a level he could have done so,” Janecke said, adding that the second responding officer was somehow perfectly timed to enable him to easily locate his fellow officer before the altercation slipped back into the darkness.

While Janecke and Hlady were in agreement on an eight month jail sentence, which she called “lengthy,” for Judge Day, it wasn’t lengthy enough. The proceeding stalled, and both sides were given a break to recalibrate and formulate a reply.

The initial officer involved in the incident happened to be in the courthouse for a traffic matter as the events were unfolding and the judge asked Janecke to locate him, giving the officer an opportunity to elaborate on the victim impact statement on file. “You have an opportunity. If you’d like to say something to me, please say so,” Day said.

 “I don’t pretend that I don’t have a bias when it comes to this incident,” the officer stated. “I’m well aware how close that night could have come to changing my life in multiple ways. I couldn’t have come home that night. I did. Mr. Stetar may not have returned home that night, and he did.”

 He expressed concern about Stetar’s eventual release and what might occur if the man resumes drinking. “I don’t know how remorseful he is, after something like that and the reaction that I got,” he said, admitting that he was on high alert now, especially in situations where alcohol is involved. He worried that the next encounter Stetar has with an officer may not result in such a good outcome. He spoke for a few minutes and the judge expressed his appreciation for it.

 The judge told the court that a violent assault on a peace officer qualifies for a “substantial term of imprisonment in all but the most unusual circumstances.” He emphasized the words ‘substantial, all, and most unusual.’

 “I don’t find anything unusual,” he said, calling it a rare circumstance when joint submissions are rejected. After another break, with a possibility of postponing the sentencing to a later date, Hlady made a further plea to the judge on behalf of Stetar, using examples from case law where lesser sentences were granted. Hlady also argued that the submitted sentence and ensuing probation would address the concerns of the victim.

The judge wouldn’t budge. He imposed a sentence of 30 months, imposing a federal sentence for an indictable, rather than summary, conviction. Janecke reminded him that a federal sentence terminates with parole, and has no provision for a period of post-custody probation. It was agreed that probation was a key element in sentencing Stetar due to the protections it will offer the officer and his family and the conditions under which Stetar will continue his rehabilitation. Judge Day rescinded his decision and gave Stetar two years minus a day plus two years of probation to follow. The man was escorted out by a sheriff.