Provincial court judge Steven Merrick has sentenced a former cab driver to 90 days under house arrest for sexual assault, calling the crime a “violation of the trust the community has in taxi drivers.”
Ronnie Eheler of Sechelt was charged in November 2017 with two counts of sexual assault as a result of an incident in late 2014 and a second, involving a different victim, in the summer of 2017.
Eheler, 66, was a driver for Sunshine Coast Taxi when the incidents occurred and both victims were adult women he’d picked up as fares. Any information that could reveal their identities is subject to a publication ban.
Eheler, who was fired by the cab company after being charged, originally pleaded not guilty, but changed the plea to guilty following a preliminary hearing last September and the charge was amended to a single count of sexual assault that included both incidents.
According to the facts read into the record at his March 20 sentencing hearing, Eheler forced an open-mouth kiss on the 2014 victim as she was getting out of his cab, and attempted to do the same to the 2017 victim while grabbing her by the waist, but the woman escaped from his grip.
Crown counsel Marion West asked the court to impose a sentence that recognized “passengers are entitled to assume they’re entering a place of relative safety” when they get into a taxi and that Eheler “abused his position of trust.” She recommended a nine- to 12-month conditional sentence that included three months of house arrest and a nighttime curfew for the remainder.
Jason Tarnow, Eheler’s defence lawyer, argued for a conditional discharge, citing the fact that Eheler’s actions were not at the most serious end of the spectrum and the pre-sentence report showed he “expresses insight and remorse.”
Tarnow noted Eheler is now living on Old Age Security and is the sole caregiver to his common-law partner.
Eheler also chose to briefly address the court, saying, “I am sorry this all happened. I am not that type of person. I ask that you take into consideration my story.”
In delivering the sentence, Merrick emphasized several times that regardless of the severity of the acts, Eheler had violated the trust a community should be able to have in its taxi services as “areas of safe haven.”
“A message must be sent to cab drivers and others in the community that if you breach that trust you’re going to jail,” Merrick said.
Merrick went on to say, however, that the particulars of Eheler’s situation warranted him being allowed to serve his 90-day sentence in the community, under house arrest.
Eheler will not be allowed out of his home without written permission except for two hours each day to attend to personal business or to get to hospital in the case of a medical emergency.
After his time under house arrest is up, Eheler will spend two years on probation and will also have to provide a DNA sample and be entered onto the sex offender registry.
