Driver who spat in man's face during road rage confrontation escapes criminal record

A driver who got out of his vehicle and spat on another driver’s face in a fit of road rage won’t have a criminal record after being found guilty of assault in North Vancouver provincial court.

Instead, Dejan Kajic, 39, was put on 12 months’ probation by a judge while being handed a conditional discharge.

The judge’s decision followed a one-day trial over an incident of a road rage that happened near the intersection of Keith Road and Brooksbank Avenue on Feb. 25, 2022.

Traffic was backed up bumper to bumper as driver Nicholas Dun was heading east on Keith Road, court heard. When he stopped at a red light, Dun testified, he heard a car horn honking behind him, but wasn’t sure why.

The driver of that car, who was attempting to turn, then pulled up beside him, said Dun “yelling out the window” in a confrontational manner.

“He said he was going to kick my ass,” said Dun. “He said he was going to shoot me.”

Dun said he still wasn’t sure why the man was angry, but guessed he wanted Dun to pull up further in traffic to let him make the turn.

At that point, another driver, Nicholas Foster, pulled up and told the angry driver – later identified as Kajic – to get back in his vehicle.

Kajic then turned his attention on Foster, goading him to get out of his car with taunts of “What are you going to do?” said Foster.

It was at that point Kajic leaned forward and spat in his face, said Foster.

“As soon as he spit in my face, I reactively grabbed his collar. We looked at each other in the eyes for a split second and I let go.”

Afterwards, Foster took a photo of the license plate on Kajic’s Audi SUV and handed it to police.

Kajic, who represented himself in court, described the incident as “just two people arguing and yelling at each other … where he engaged me just as much.”

Judge Joseph Galati found Kajic not guilty of threatening Dun, saying Dun testified that he didn’t take Kajic’s threats to shoot him seriously.

“I’m more inclined to think you were acting out of frustration,” he said.

But he said spitting in another person’s face counts as an assault.

“I’m not saying this is the crime of the century, but spitting on someone is an offence,” said the judge.

Crown counsel Kenny Wu argued for a suspended sentence, which would have resulted in a criminal record, arguing that cases of “road rage” are a growing problem, “particularly as traffic in our jurisdiction and many others in the Greater Vancouver area increases.”

Wu said there are many reasons why drivers get frustrated, but that’s “no excuse for someone to get to get out of their vehicle and confront another driver.”

But Galati said leaving Kajic with a criminal record would present a problem for his competing as a professional mixed martial arts fighter, which involves travel to other countries.

Kajic, who also runs an MMA gym on the North Shore, described himself as a family man who only fights in a professional capacity.

“You overreacted,” Galati told him.