Political strategist and a Hamilton activist fined $50 for trespassing at Kelseys

An outspoken conservative political strategist and a Hamilton activist have each been fined $50 for trespassing at a Burlington Kelseys after a drunken incident in September.

The Crown dropped criminal breaking and entering charges against Nick Kouvalis and Sarah Warry-Poljanski Wednesday. They pleaded guilty to trespassing under the Provincial Offences Act and were fined $50, said Peter Bouchy, Warry-Poljanski's lawyer. They will also each pay a $15 surcharge.

The initial charges dated back to Sept. 26, when police found Kouvalis and Warry-Poljanski at Kelseys around 2 a.m., Halton police said in December.

Hours earlier, Warry-Poljanski had lost her bid to be the Ontario PC party's Hamilton Mountain nominee. Kouvalis is a former campaign manager for one-time Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch, and ran Rob Ford's mayoral campaign in 2010.

Warry-Poljanski, who works as an addictions counsellor, said she and Kouvalis were admittedly in "a drunken stupor" when they told a taxi driver to "take us somewhere that's open."

They assumed Kelseys fit the criteria, she told CBC News on Wednesday. The doors were unlocked, and some of the lights were on, she said. They walked in, sat down, and called for staff.

"It felt literally like I was there for 10 minutes," she said.

Police said in December that an alarm sounded and officers found the pair inside the restaurant. They were held until they sobered up.

Warry-Poljanski, who ran for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board in 2014, believes someone called the media's attention to the charges "for political reasons." She rarely drinks, she said, and nearly lost her job over the incident.

"It was surreal," she said. "I (spent) weeks trying to come to terms with it."

"We live in a society where it's the court of public opinion. You have to wait for the facts."

Bouchy said his client is relieved. "She's obviously pleased with the result, so now she can continue with her social justice activism in the city of Hamilton."

Kouvalis has struggled with alcohol addiction since 2011. In April 2016, he was arrested for drunk driving in the Windsor area and was charged with impaired operation of a motor vehicle.

He was driving his Lexus in Tecumseh, Ont., around 2:20 a.m. when he collided with a concrete culvert, Essex County OPP said.

According to the Windsor Star, he pleaded guilty. As part of a plea bargain, an impaired driving charge was withdrawn, but Kouvalis was fined.