A Sureté du Quebec officer was not present in a Longueuil courtroom Friday morning as he was formally charged with dangerous driving causing the death of a five-year-old boy.
Patrick Ouellet had originally been ordered to appear but was later given permission to not attend the court hearing.
He has been suspended with pay since May, when the Crown announced that following a review of the evidence Ouellet would be charged with the February 2014 death of five-year-old Nicholas Thorne-Belance.
The boy died after Ouellet, who was driving an unmarked police car at 120 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, smashed into a car driven by Thorne-Belance's father as he was making a left-hand turn at a green light.
Prosecutors initially said no charges would be laid in the crash because Mike Bellance had made a "risky manoeuvre" by turning left without a priority green light.
That provoked outrage from the community and from witnesses, who said the police car was moving so fast nobody could have realized it was unsafe to turn.
An independent committee then reviewed the case and recommended charges of dangerous driving causing death.
Ouellet's case will be in court next on Sept. 10, when his lawyer says Ouellet will plead not guilty.
