Sentencing has been delayed until late July for a Red Deer man who led police on a wild chase through the city last fall.
Ryan John Harder, 21, pleaded guilty on April 20 to charges related to a pursuit on Nov. 10.
Red Deer City RCMP rerouted a helicopter from a search at the north end of Red Deer, near Parkland Mall, to direct a ground pursuit after Harder sped away from a police officer who tried to pull him over.
An officer tried unsuccessfully to stop Harder a few days earlier, concerned because the licence plate did not match the red Volkswagen Harder was driving, said Const. Chris Kosack, a media liaison officer with the Red Deer City RCMP at the time.
Harder was arrested at Red Deer College after speeding through the city, hitting one of the unmarked vehicles and narrowly missing two elderly pedestrians walking along Taylor Drive.
Kosack said Harder’s car was corralled by police units after striking a cement barrier in the college parking lot.
Harder was to have been sentenced in Red Deer provincial court on Monday for a variety of criminal charges, including failing to stop and evading police, dangerous driving and failing to stop at the scene of a collision.
The hearing was adjourned at the request of his lawyer, Walter Kubanek, and supported by Crown prosecutor Wayne Silliker, who agreed that a pre-sentence report provided to the court did not give a full picture.
Kubanek said in April, when tendering Harder’s guilty plea, that he wanted to have his client assessed for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Kubanek asked Judge Bert Skinner on Monday for a later sentencing date, pending a meeting set for June 28 with other professionals, including a medical doctor, a psychiatrist and a psychologist.
Harder returns for sentencing on July 20.
He is also to set a date at that time to be tried on older charges, including unauthorized possession of a firearm and uttering death threats.