The former chief of the Collingwood Corner, N.S., fire department who was removed from his post after the death of a snowmobiler in February is now facing charges for impaired driving and obstructing a peace officer in New Brunswick.
RCMP say Jerrold Cotton, 51, crashed his vehicle on May 4 on Highway 2 near Sackville, N.B.
Officers on the scene allegedly “observed open liquor in the vehicle and signs of intoxication from the driver, Mr. Cotton, who was the only occupant,” a spokesperson for the RCMP in New Brunswick said in an email.
Cotton appeared in Moncton provincial court on Aug. 29 on charges of impaired driving, driving with a blood alcohol concentration over 80, and obstructing a peace officer.
RCMP declined an interview request.
The incident came less than three months after Cotton struck a snowmobiler on Wyvern Road in Collingwood Corner while driving a municipal fire truck.
Blake Nicholson, 28, was snowmobiling in Collingwood Corner on the evening of Feb. 21 when he hit a snowbank and crashed.
Police have said witnesses were providing CPR to Nicholson in the road when he was hit by the fire truck that had been called to help him. He was pronounced dead a short time later.
In his obituary, Nicholson was described as an avid outdoorsman who had a huge heart and “would give you the shirt off his back.” He left behind his fiancée and two-year-old son.
CBC News asked Nova Scotia’s Medical Examiner Service if it could confirm that Nicholson was killed by the collision with the fire truck. It did not respond by deadline.
No charges have been laid and the investigation is still open, said Nova Scotia RCMP. They would not say if there is any evidence that could explain what caused the collision between the fire truck and Nicholson. The truck and the snowmobile were seized by RCMP.
The RCMP told CBC News in February that they did not give Cotton a breathalyzer test at the scene.
Cotton previously admitted to drunk driving
Greg Herrett, the CAO of the Municipality of Cumberland, told municipal council in an emergency meeting held shortly after the incident that Cotton wasn’t truthful with municipal officials about hitting Nicholson with the fire truck.
He also did not tell them the fire truck had been seized by police, said Herrett.
Herrett told council Cotton responded to an emergency call three days after the incident, despite publicly saying he would step away from his duties. He said Cotton had driven his wife, then deputy fire chief Andrea Bishop, to the scene, but family members of the woman who called for help turned away assistance once they saw Cotton.
At the February meeting, friends and family of Nicholson questioned why it took so long for council to remove Cotton, who previously pleaded guilty to impaired driving in the fire truck in 2020.
According to Nova Scotia’s Public Prosecution Service, that conviction included a fine of $2,000, a licence suspension from Nov. 30, 2020, to May 31, 2022, and an 18-month prohibition order on motor vehicles.
Cotton and Bishop discharged
Herrett said the municipality also banned Cotton from driving municipal vehicles for about a year, but it did not have the authority at the time to remove individual chiefs or deputy chiefs of fire departments.
Last year, in response to the charges laid against Cotton in 2020, the municipality enacted a bylaw that included a code of conduct for chiefs and deputy chiefs. Council found Cotton and Bishop to be in violation of that code of conduct in February.
This allowed the pair to be discharged. They were also banned for life from the fire hall, and the locks were changed.
Cotton will be back in Moncton provincial court on Oct. 17 to enter a plea on the latest impaired driving charges.
