Former East St. Paul police chief Harry Bakema stunned an inquiry on Tuesday when he admitted that just hours after Crystal Taman died when an off-duty Winnipeg police officer rear-ended her vehicle he called the officer's boss -- current Winnipeg Police Chief Keith McCaskill.
Questioned about cell phone records by East St. Paul Police lawyer Bob McDonald, Bakema admitted that after making several calls to the District 13 Winnipeg police station, he finally got through to McCaskill, the station's divisional commander.
Harry Bakema admitted ‘there were things that could be done different’ in the investigation of the fatal crash.
When lawyer Gene Zazelenchuk, acting for the family of Taman, asked what the four-and-a-half-minute conversation was about, Bakema said he just told McCaskill that Derek Harvey-Zenk had been involved in a motor-vehicle collision. "I did not think it was right to allow him to go to work," Bakema testified. "I wanted them to know he had been in an accident."
After Zazelenchuk noted it only took Bakema about 20 seconds to say that and pointed out that later there was another seven minute conversation with the Winnipeg police deputy chief of operations, the lawyer suggested the discussion had been that one of their officers had been in a collision so "you clean up your end and I'll clean up this end."
Bakema vehemently denied the lawyer's allegations.
Taman, 40, a mother of three, died when her convertible was rear-ended by a pickup truck driven by Harvey-Zenk while she was stopped at a red light at Henderson Highway and the north Perimeter Highway on Feb. 25, 2005.
Earlier, Bakema admitted the investigation into Harvey-Zenk's role in the fatal collision could have been handled better, but he wouldn't agree with inquiry counsel David Paciocco's wording that it was "botched up big time".
"There were things that could be done different," Bakema admitted during hours of questioning.
When Bakema was asked if he helped scuttle the investigation to protect Harvey-Zenk, an officer he used to work with in Winnipeg, he said "I did not."
Meanwhile, Bakema denied copying notes from fellow officers, but admitted he may have checked spelling and times with a fellow officer while writing up his report on the fatal collision.
Under intense questioning by Paciocco, during which numerous similarities were pointed out between the former police chief's notes and a fellow officer - including mistakes - Bakema finally said "we may have shared some information like spelling or names and times." But Bakema denied the two officers got together to align their notes together.
"My notes are not the same as his," Bakema said.
When Paciocco told Bakema that his notes show Taman was conveyed to hospital at two different times, he said he had no explanation.
Later, Bakema surprised inquest commissioner Roger Salhany when it was pointed out that his cell phone records indicate he called a local Chrysler dealership while he was at the scene of the collision.
"You called them in the middle of your investigation about your vehicle?" Salhany said.
Bakema responded "I don't think I did."
The inquest continues today.
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
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