Probe into hit and run is a chance for justice to be done

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/10/2017 (2961 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s important that investigations into a recent hit-and-run death do right by the victim, Cody Severight. But it’s also an opportunity to finally do right by Crystal Taman.

Ms. Taman, 40, lost her life on her way to work at 7 a.m. on Feb. 25, 2005, when her compact car was rear-ended by a pickup truck driven by Derek Harvey-Zenk, an off-duty Winnipeg police officer who had spent the night drinking with fellow officers and who, according to witnesses, was visibly drunk.

Mr. Harvey-Zenk received a conditional sentence of two years of house arrest. To put it bluntly: Mr. Harvey-Zenk got a sweet deal thanks to a sham investigation by police officers who lied, covered up and tried to subvert the justice system to protect one of their own.

Unfortunately, Winnipeg now has opportunity to see how the system has changed because, in what seems like an eerie echo of the Taman case, a police officer is accused of driving drunk and killing a man. Winnipeg police Const. Justin Holz has been charged with impaired driving causing death after pedestrian Cody Severight, 23, was killed by a vehicle that struck him and fled the scene on Oct. 10.

Like Mr. Harvey-Zenk, Mr. Holz reportedly decided to drive after drinking with fellow officers following a shift. But there are also significant differences between the two cases.

One change that has occurred between the Taman case in 2005 and the Severight case in 2017 is the existence of the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, which was formed because of way police torpedoed the earlier investigation to protect a brother in blue. Under a civilian director, the IIU looks into all serious incidents involving police officers in Manitoba and its mandate would include exposing police officers who try to cover for each other.

Another change involves the police officer in the top job. Danny Smyth, who became chief of the Winnipeg Police Service less than a year ago, now faces what could be a career-defining test. In a city that well remembers the fiasco in the Taman case, there will be intense public scrutiny on the way Mr. Smyth handles criminal charges against his officer.

At a news conference last Friday, Mr. Smyth revealed that two more of his officers have been suspended because of their unspecified actions in the Severight investigation. “I don’t have a lot of tolerance for people that aren’t going to do their job or act professionally,” the chief said. That’s good, because the public doesn’t have a lot of tolerance for police officers who think they’re above the law.

Although few details are yet known about the Holz investigation, there are already questions about whether police are favouring their own.

On a breathalyzer test, Mr. Holz blew just under the legal limit for impairment but, alarmingly, the chief said Friday that Mr. Holz didn’t take the test until three to four hours after the crash. Did fellow officers delay the test long enough to let their colleague sober up?

Also, Mr. Holz was drinking with other police officers at a bar before he drove. Did any of them try to prevent him from driving? Did they also drive away from the bar after drinking?

These and other serious questions must be addressed in the upcoming criminal trial of Mr. Holz, the investigation by the IIU and an internal review ordered by the police chief.

It would be heartening if, 12 years later, Ms. Taman’s death finally has a positive effect by ensuring police officers who act criminally are treated as criminals.