OTTAWA — Margaret Trudeau smiled, heaved a sigh of relief and embraced her daughter after a judge threw out the alcohol-related driving case against her based on violations of the Charter of Rights championed by her former husband more than 20 years ago.

"I feel very good,'' Trudeau said Tuesday as she left the courtroom, agreeing that Pierre Trudeau's Charter of Rights and Freedoms served her well indeed.

Ontario Court Judge Lise Maisonneuve said Trudeau's right to counsel of choice and protection against unwarranted detention were violated when she was picked up May 30, 2004.

Maisonneuve said the serious and repeated breaches of Trudeau's charter rights by Ottawa police Cst. Trevor Archibald would compromise her right to a fair trial.

Trudeau, whose 1970s escapades with the Rolling Stones and at New York's Studio 54 helped earn her notoriety in Canada and abroad, registered a blood-alcohol level of 107 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

The legal limit is 80 milligrams.

But Maisonneuve said Archibald's testimony was unreliable, that he stopped her arbitrarily, and he denied her access to her counsel of choice when he neither left a message nor gave her the option to leave one when he called the first two lawyers she requested at the Ottawa police station.

The blood-alcohol readings, both at the roadside and on a more complex machine at the police station, were therefore obtained illegally and must be thrown out, said the judge.

Maisonneuve said the officer violated three sections of the charter that was a central theme of Trudeau's Liberal governments in the early 1980s:

• Section 8, protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
• Section 9, against arbitrary detention.
• Section 10(b), guaranteeing the right to counsel of choice.

The judge noted Archibald's story changed during the trial.

First, the officer said he suspected Trudeau was going 100 kilometres an hour in a 60 km/h zone. He said he followed her and gauged her speed at 80 km/h.

But, upon cross-examination, the officer acknowledged his speedometer was not calibrated, that he ran her licence plate along with another one while he followed her, and that he ultimately stopped her to check her documents.

"The stated purpose of the stop was not borne out by the evidence,'' Maisonneuve said.

"The defence has established on the balance of probability that the stop was arbitrary. The breach was serious.''

At the station, Trudeau was kept in a locked room with a phone on which she could not call out. Archibald called the first two lawyers she requested, but didn't tell her he got answering machines, couldn't remember what they said, and neither left messages nor gave her the option to leave messages.

Maisonneuve said that if police insist on calling lawyers on behalf of detainees, they must do so diligently and responsibly.

Archibald did not, she said.

The irony of the ruling wasn't lost on Trudeau's lawyer, Michael Edelson, who has won cases on similar grounds.

"But she's a citizen like everyone else and she's entitled to be protected by the Charter of Rights that protect every other citizen against the use of police power when it's not legitimately exercised,'' said Edelson.

"That's what happened today. She's just one other citizen who found that her rights were breached and she finds herself vindicated by the judge's decision. Those rights were breached and significantly breached in this case.''

There was no indication the prosecution will appeal the case.