Winnipeg cop facing drug, weapons charges killed in highway crash

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This article was published 03/10/2016 (3305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What was described as a dark chapter in the history of the Winnipeg Police Service came to an abrupt end Monday morning when the officer charged with dozens of criminal offences last month died after his pickup truck slammed head on into the front of a gravel truck.

Little more than two weeks after Const. Trent Milan, 42, an 18-year veteran of the force, was charged with 34 offences, including breach of trust, attempting to obstruct justice, possession of prohibited weapons and possession of various drugs for the purpose of trafficking, he was pronounced dead inside his heavily damaged pickup truck after it came to a rest on its side in a ditch on Garven Road at about 11:30 a.m. Monday.

Milan’s death occurred before he made his first court appearance on the charges. He wasn’t set to appear in court until Nov. 1 on the weapons-related charges and Nov. 10 on the drug charges. He had been released on a promise to appear in court.

During a brief press conference held just down the road from the scene of the collision, RCMP spokeswoman Tara Seel would not confirm whether Milan intentionally turned his pickup into the path of the gravel truck. The gravel truck driver suffered minor injuries in the collision.

“It appears the eastbound pickup truck collided with the westbound gravel truck,” she said. “The driver of the pickup truck was not ejected… He was pronounced dead at the scene.”

Seel said collision investigators were expected to be at the scene for several hours, but by mid-afternoon, they still could not say what caused the crash.

Seel would only say the deceased is a 42-year-old man from Oakbank, adding next of kin have been notified.

She said road conditions were good at the time of the crash.

Just more than two weeks ago, on Sept. 16, a grim-faced deputy police Chief Danny Smyth revealed the shocking allegations one of their own was being accused of stealing seized evidence and sending it back onto the streets.

“This is a dark chapter for the Winnipeg Police Service,” Smyth said at the time. “I can tell you, during the course of this investigation, my emotions have run from disbelief to anger to disappointment to resolve and now, here today, to actually some relief that we have brought this member essentially to justice now.”

On Monday, a police spokesman said “the service is not providing comments at this time.”

Even the Winnipeg Police Association, whose president, Maurice Sabourin, said last month his members were “shocked” when they learned of the allegations against Milan, refused to comment.

On Monday, nobody answered the door at Milan’s house in a subdivision in Oakbank. Most of the drapes on the house were drawn, but there were two vehicles in the driveway.

Neighbours admitted they were shocked at Milan’s death, but would say nothing more, pointing back to what they said about him at the time the charges were laid: he was a good neighbour, very friendly and always willing to lend a hand.

“It’s very sad,” one neighbour said.

The collision took place on Garven between Pine Ridge Road and Highway 207, just a short distance from the southwest corner of the Elmhurst Golf and Country Club.

A golfer, who asked not to be named, said he had just taken a shot when he heard “a loud crash.

“Then we saw smoke coming up. We knew then it would be terrible.”

At the scene, a black pickup truck with the front end smashed in was on its side in the southern ditch. Debris and a large blackened area could be seen on the road.

Several RCMP officers and vehicles and a fire truck were at the scene near the country club. By mid-afternoon, the pickup was taken away on a flat-bed tow truck.

Last month, after police executed search warrants on Milan’s Oakbank home, officers found cocaine, methamphetamine, Oxycodone, ecstasy, Percocet and marijuana, police said. They also reported finding illegal weapons familiar to police because they had already taken them off the streets once.

It’s believed the officer had been helping himself to police evidence for a half-dozen years. Police noticed the discrepancies and began investigating a year before the arrest was made in September.

Milan had been on administrative leave since the charges were laid.

The allegations first came to light about a year ago but the offences date back to 2010, when Milan was part of the department’s street crime unit.

According to court documents, the weapons found inside Milan’s home included several brass knuckles, centrifugal force knives and butterfly knives.

Milan was also charged with two counts of stealing jewelry worth more than $5,000.

A breach-of-trust charge alleged he was “benefiting personally by his police-related duties,” while another charge alleged he gave confidential police information to somebody outside the service to “attempt to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca