Popping wheelies and fleeing police earns curfew sentence

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This article was published 01/03/2025 (390 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Steinbach-area man who popped wheelies and weaved through traffic after fleeing police, having his license suspended, and breaching his release orders was given what the judge described as a last-chance conditional sentence to be served at home with a curfew.

Part of the sentence conditions also included giving Brett Auch, 21, curfew breaks to potentially workout at a gym. He repeatedly broke curfew when released on the charges he pleaded guilty to in Steinbach court Feb. 21.

The list of crimes started on Dec. 22, 2023 at 2:10 a.m. when a Steinbach RCMP officer clocked Auch going 146 km/h in a car on Highway 12 south of Steinbach.

That officer notified the two police vehicles behind him travelling northbound towards Steinbach about the speeder, then put his emergency lights on, turned around and followed Auch. The other two police vehicles did the same.

Auch did not brake and continued until he got to his grandparents’ driveway off Highway 12. He parked by the house and ran into the bushes, followed by the first officer.

Auch ignored commands to stop until the officer tripped during the chase, which is when Auch decided to stop running and was handcuffed. The other officers then arrived to help.

Auch was also arrested for impaired driving because of the smell of alcohol. He did not get charged in court with impaired driving.

When police got the chance to run the license plate on the black Honda Civic, it came back as a plate for a different vehicle. Another plate was found in the Civic that belonged to a different truck.

An open case of Twisted Tea malt drinks were found on the passenger side floor. Cannabis was in the centre console. Auch told police at the station that he did drink Corona beer earlier in the evening.

Breath samples at 3:30 a.m. came back at .07 and .06, below the .08 blood-alcohol criminal limit but over the .05 limit that comes with driving prohibitions and other administrative penalties. RCMP handed him a 24-hour roadside prohibition and the charge he eventually pleaded guilty to of fleeing police.

Wheelies and weaving

Auch was on a release order on May 31 of last year and was not supposed to be driving when at 8:30 p.m. he pulled up beside a Steinbach RCMP vehicle driving on Highway 52 by Mitchell.

The officer had watched him pop up his front tire and swerve between other vehicles on the highway. The officer said there was lots of traffic that Friday night.

As Auch passed the officer, they looked at each other and the officer recognized his face through the clear visor. Auch then sped away while popping another wheelie.

For safety reasons, the officer did not pursue. He continued on to the Steinbach detachment where he spoke to other officers who said they also saw the motorcycle Auch was driving at a high speed on Highway 52 earlier in the day.

Another officer saw the same motorcycle without a license plate speed away from him when he turned on his lights to pull it over just over an hour later around 9:40 p.m. The officer said it was popping wheelies on Main Street in Steinbach, cutting in between two cars driving side-by-side as it drove away. This officer decided he too should not engage in a high speed pursuit.

Instagram search

Police decided the best way to track their suspected reckless driver down was to search social media.

They spotted the same motorcycle that was being a menace around the city on an October 2023 post from Auch’s Instagram account. He was wearing the same jacket and helmet.

But taking Auch into custody proved more difficult.

That night around 11:30 p.m., they went to Auch’s Mitchell home. He at first did not answer the door, despite seeing the officers through the window. When he finally answered the back door in an apparent intoxicated state, Auch refused to exit the home.

Police got a warrant the next day. Before they went back to his home, police said they spotted Auch again driving his motorcycle on Main Street without a license or registration.

It took a couple tries that night, but police eventually found Auch at home and arrested him. He was released on a curfew from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Auch broke that curfew on Aug. 13 when Ste Anne Police found his truck around 10 p.m. at the hotel bar. They scanned his plate and saw that he was not supposed to be operating a vehicle, was not supposed to be out, and was to abstain from alcohol.

The Ste Anne officer stopped Auch when he came out and tried to drive away. Smelling alcohol, the officer demanded a breath sample and got a low blood-alcohol reading of .02.

Auch spent two days in custody before being released again Aug. 15 with a curfew and condition not to drive.

He broke that curfew last Oct. 20.

Steinbach police responded to a call from Marchand about two males knocking on people’s doors and weaving through traffic. An officer spotted them on a driveway. One stopped, the other went behind the house. The officer believed the one who left was Auch, but the homeowner did not let police search the property and confirm it was him.

This led police to conduct a curfew check on Auch at his Mitchell home. He was not there and was later arrested.

He was released Nov. 1 to attend residential substance abuse treatment. Auch was kicked out of that facility after breaking their rule of not having an intimate relationship with fellow patients.

Defence attorney Gerri Wiebe said Auch’s driving was on the “low end” of dangerous driving, and that he did not speed up to get away from police when he was spotted already speeding on Highway 12. Judge David Ireland agreed.

Wiebe added that Auch only ran from police because he did not want to disturb his grandparents, and stressed that he did not plead guilty to that part of his fleeing from police, only the part where he was in a motor vehicle.

Wiebe said Auch had been sober for five months now.

Judge Ireland handed Auch a five-month conditional sentence to be served in the community. The Crown had asked for six months behind bars.

Conditions in the community sentence include no consuming or possessing alcohol or drugs that are not prescribed, with 50 hours of community service.

Auch also has a curfew at his home just south of Steinbach, but is allowed to leave for for work, fours hours per week of personal business, attend counselling as directed, and to go to the gym for the sake of his mental as approved by the conditional sentence supervisor after a request from the defence. Auch hopes to be a personal trainer.

He took an opportunity to speak to the judge in court before his sentencing. His voice wavered with emotion as he spoke about how partying has made it harder to attain his goals.

“It cost me thousands and thousands of dollars. I work my ass off — excuse my language — to try to get the best life that I can. And I’ve spent nothing but money towards lawyers… which I’ve done to myself.

“It’s not the life I want to live. It’s nothing but stress and headaches,” Auch told court.

Auch, who grew up in La Broquerie, had no previous criminal record before pleading guilty to flight from a peace officer with a motor vehicle, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, and two counts failing to comply with release orders. Other charges were dropped in the plea deal.

He also received a one-year driving prohibition on each conviction of fleeing police and driving dangerously, and his eight days in custody after his repeated arrests were noted.

Court heard Auch paid over $10,000 in impound fees.