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TORONTO — A prominent Ontario lawyer who was driving a pickup truck that a 911 caller reported was swerving all over a major highway has been cleared of drunk driving charges because police violated his Charter rights by arresting him a few minutes later inside the doorway of his house.

Joseph W. Irving, 66, who has represented a Hells Angel and a strip club kingpin in criminal proceedings, was dragged onto his front porch by the arresting officers, despite his order to one of them, whom he called “steroid boy,” to “get the f— out of my house.” He tried and failed to throw a punch during the encounter, after first refusing to come to the door.

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All this happened within a few minutes of a 911 call to report that Irving’s black Ford pickup was driving erratically on a nearby highway.

Peel Regional police officers responded promptly, but botched the arrest, according to Justice George S. Gage. With one officer demanding he come to the door, and holding a foot in the threshold to prevent it closing, and as many as five other officers on the front step, Judge Gage found Irving was illegally “coerced by the state from the safety and privacy of his library into the scrutiny of the officers on the front porch.”