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Bakema trial hears family's testimony

Tara Lee Taman recalls day mother was killed

By: Gabrielle Giroday

Posted: 05/8/2012 1:00 AM

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It was a regular drive into work until she came upon the car crash that would change her life.

Seven years after Tara Lee Taman happened to come upon the crash that killed her mother Crystal Taman, she got on a court stand to recall the events around the morning her mother died. Tara Lee testified Monday at the trial of Harry Bakema, the former chief of the East St. Paul police force, who's accused of obstruction of justice, perjury, breach of trust and other criminal charges for the investigation into her mother's case.

Tara Lee had been on her way to the city in February 2005 when she saw her mother's bashed-up vehicle being covered by a tarp at Lagimodiere Boulevard and the Perimeter Highway.

Tara Lee told the court while she waited for her father to arrive, she saw two officers helping a man out of the driver's side of a truck.

"He looked like he was walking fine," said Tara Lee, who was joined in court by her family.

At that point, Tara Lee didn't know the extent of what had happened to her mother.

But she said she recognized one of the officers on scene as Harry Bakema, who Tara Lee said she knew of before the crash.

Crystal Taman suffered fatal injuries after Derek Harvey-Zenk, a Winnipeg Police Service officer who was off-duty after a night of drinking with other police, rear-ended her vehicle as she sat at a red light. Harvey-Zenk received a conditional sentence after he pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving causing death, instead of the initial charge of impaired driving causing death.

A public inquiry and a damning 2008 report said Bakema created inaccurate police notes during his investigation into Crystal Taman's death. It also called the investigation by the East St. Paul Police Service "riddled with incompetence" and "conducted in bad faith." Bakema and Harvey-Zenk had both worked for the Winnipeg police.

Tara Lee said Monday she remembered what appeared to be brief talking between the man and police.

The court also heard from Rolland Fontaine, a paramedic who responded to the crash, who said the odour of alcohol on a man he encountered there was "very noticeable."

Fontaine said the man, who sat in a vehicle at the scene, refused medical treatment.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 8, 2012 B2