A former East St. Paul police officer was booted out of the Taman inquiry this morning in connection to a verbal confrontation outside the hearing room.
VIDEO: Kicked out of Taman inquiry
Ken Graham was barred from the hearing after he allegedly got into an exchange of words today with East St. Paul police officer Bryan Maloney, the inquiry was told.
Former East St. Paul Police Cst. Ken Graham testifies to his note-taking and memory of the time after the fatal motor vehicle collision involving Crystal Taman and Derek Harvey-Zenk. He was barred from the inquiry Tuesday.
Maloney is to testify later today. Graham, now a real estate agent, has already testified.
Maloney reported to the inquiry that at about 10:30 a.m. Graham told him in a hallway, "You guys are nothing but a bunch of f------ traitors."
Inquiry head Roger Salhany agreed to bar Graham from the proceedings because he allegedly intimidated a witness.
Graham told Salhany that Maloney's statement about him is wrong.
He said Maloney tried to initiate the conversation and that he told Maloney that he "didn't speak to liars."
Moments later the hearing room, at the convention centre, was cleared after a spectator suffered a seizure. It continues at 2 p.m.
In earlier testimony, an East St. Paul police officer denied being part of a cover-up to protect a then city police officer arrested for killing Crystal Taman in a Feb. 2005 highway crash, an inquiry heard this morning.
Const. Jason Woychuk said he was not intentionally involved in any plan to protect Dererk Harvey-Zenk from being prosecuted for impaired driving causing death.
He told the public inquiry that he was a new officer and only following the orders of his boss at the time, then chief Harry Bakema.
Woychuk said Bakema instructed him to exclude a paramedic's observation Harvey-Zenk smelled of alcohol from his police notes of the crash.
He admitted he deliberately falsified his notes even though he didn't feel comfortable doing so.
"I was a new member to the service," he said. "I was under the leadership of someone I thought would give me good direction."
The failure of East. St. Paul police to properly document indications Harvey-Zenk was impaired is one of the reasons Harvey-Zenk was not prosecuted for impaired driving causing death, and instead accepted a controversial plea bargain in which he got a conditional sentence and essentially two years of house arrest.
Woychuk also denied he was intentionally soft on Harvey-Zenk, by not recording signs of impairment, because Harvey-Zenk was a fellow police officer.
The inquiry is being held to determine how East St. Paul police investigated the Taman case. It's also examining how the case was handled in the courts.
The inquiry is being held at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. Bakema and his successor as chief Norm Carter are to testify this week. The inquiry does not sit Friday.
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