Ex-cop spills at ex-chief's trial

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Jason Woychuk

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Harry Bakema (C PROCAYLO)

A public inquiry has already found a high-profile deadly crash investigation was "riddled with incompetence" and "conducted in bad faith."

Now a criminal trial against the former East St. Paul police chief is hearing specific allegations about how it all went wrong.

Jason Woychuk, a former constable with the ESP service, told court Wednesday that he was ordered by his boss, Harry Bakema, to exclude details of suspected impairment in his notes about a fatal crash involving off-duty Winnipeg police officer Derek Harvey-Zenk.

Woychuk says a paramedic at the scene indicated that Harvey-Zenk may have been intoxicated at the time of the 2005 tragedy. But Bakema ordered him to keep those details out of his report.

"I was told not to put that in my notes. I don't recall him giving me a reason why," Woychuk testified. He said Bakema himself indicated that Harvey-Zenk was "impaired, or possibly impaired" as he brought the accused over to his cruiser car and placed him in the backseat.

Woychuk said he was also told by Bakema to write that he was transporting Harvey-Zenk to the ESP police station for the purpose of making a traffic accident report. In reality, he took him back there to be arrested. Woychuk claims Bakema gave him these instructions in response to Woychuk's concerns they may have breached Harvey-Zenk's Charter rights at the scene by detaining him in a cruiser car without any formal charge or caution.

"I felt there was probably a Charter breach," said Woychuk.

Bakema, 60, is on trial for six criminal charges, including perjury, breach of trust and obstruction of justice, which stem from his role in the investigation of the death of Crystal Taman. The married mother of three was killed after her convertible was rear-ended by Harvey-Zenk while she waited at a red light near Lagimodiere Boulevard and the Perimeter Highway. Harvey-Zenk was on his way home from a night drinking with fellow officers.

Harvey-Zenk later pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of dangerous driving causing death and was given a conditional sentence. The failure of East. St. Paul police to properly document indications Harvey-Zenk was impaired is one of the reasons the case crumbled and alcohol-related charges were dropped by the Crown. That issue was the primary focus of a damning 2008 public inquiry which ultimately led to Bakema's arrest.

Woychuk told court on Wednesday how he signed an immunity agreement with RCMP in 2010 - only to be arrested months later and threatened with charges including obstruction of justice and perjury. However, no formal charges were ever laid.

Under cross-examination, Woychuk admitted he never observed any signs of impairment on Harvey-Zenk. But he rejected suggestions from defence lawyer Hymie Weinstein that Bakema never commented about possible intoxication or that the paramedic didn't express an opinion about Harvey-Zenk's state of sobriety.

"(The paramedic) made one of those motions with his hand tipped to the mouth, like he'd been drinking," said Woychuk. He told court he doesn't believe the investigation was deliberately botched and agreed with a previous statement given to police in which he said there was "maybe a screw-up, but not a cover-up."

The trial has previously heard testimony from another officer about how Bakema seemed to quickly reject suspicion Harvey-Zenk may have been impaired despite evidence to the contrary. Ken Graham, a former East St. Paul officer, told court Tuesday he smelled a strong aroma of booze inside Harvey-Zenk's empty vehicle following the deadly crash, but Bakema didn't agree.

"He stuck his head in and said he couldn't smell anything," Graham said. Bakema had personal contact with Harvey-Zenk at the scene and told Graham "he could not smell any alcohol on him." Graham never dealt with Harvey-Zenk to make his own observations, court was told.

Bakema also told Graham he had worked in the same Winnipeg police district as Harvey-Zenk before Bakema moved to East St. Paul. Woychuk said Wednesday that he was also made aware of the personal link.

Bakema told Graham and Woychuk he was going to assign another veteran East St. Paul officer to take over the investigation because he didn't want to create any perception of bias based on his personal history with Harvey-Zenk. That officer, Norm Carter, is expected to testify later this week.

www.mikeoncrime.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 10, 2012 B1