Bar staff tried to stop off-duty cop later charged with drunk driving

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This article was published 14/12/2023 (678 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An off-duty Winnipeg police officer has been charged with impaired driving after allegedly drinking beer at a Henderson Highway bar, making his way past the establishment’s security and getting behind the wheel last Friday.

Staff at Leopold’s Tavern at 1346 Henderson Hwy. called police after the man — who they did not realize was a police officer — drove away from the parking lot.

“He came in at the tail-end of my shift. He just came and sat at the bar and was chatting with people sitting at the bar,” said an employee, who asked for her name to be withheld.

She said the man was alone.

“I’ve seen his bill, he only had like two beverages here — but by the time he got up to leave, he was clearly intoxicated,” she said, adding he appeared to be stumbling.

“He tried to walk out and then security advised him not to drive. He continued to get into his car, so obviously we called the non-emergency and reported it with his licence plate.”

The bartender said the man was drinking draft beer.

Officers went to the bar, identified the driver as an off-duty member of the Winnipeg Police Service, and arrested him at a home a short time later, police said Thursday.

They said no one was hurt in relation to the incident.

WPS professional standards investigators looked into the case before Crown prosecutors authorized charges, police said.

Oleksii Gerasymchuk, 39, has been charged with driving with a blood-alcohol content greater than .08 and driving while impaired. He has been a WPS officer for two years.

Police notified the civilian oversight agency, the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, which is monitoring the investigation.

Police spokesman Const. Claude Chancy said Gerasymchuk will perform alternative duties pending the outcome of his court case, meaning he is still working, but is not patrolling the street.

The bar employee said she was shocked to learn the suspect was a police officer.

“Wild. It was insane. We didn’t believe it,” she said. “You would think that they’re the good people… but there’s always bad seeds.”

No other city officer has been charged with impaired driving this year or in 2022. In 2021, two Winnipeg officers were charged.

On Jan. 19, 2021, patrol officers were called to the back of a home on McMeans Avenue East, where a man appeared to be in medical distress. A 29-year-old officer, Christopher Logan, was charged with driving while impaired.

He pleaded guilty in provincial court in April 2021 and was given a $1,000 fine and a one-year driving prohibition, court records show.

“You would think that they’re the good people… but there’s always bad seeds.”–Leopold’s Tavern staff

Another off-duty officer, Chris Grant, then 52, was charged with driving while impaired and driving with a blood-alcohol content greater than .08, after his vehicle struck a tree near Belmont Avenue and Salter Street on Dec. 18, 2021.

The charge of impaired driving was stayed, court records show, but Grant pleaded guilty to the other offence.

He was fined $2,212 and banned from driving for a year.

Both Logan and Grant remain Winnipeg police officers, spokeswoman Const. Dani McKinnon said.

Justin Holz pleaded guilty in October 2019 to dangerous driving causing death in the fatal hit-and-run of 23-year-old Cody Severight, while he was a police officer.

Other charges, including impaired driving causing death, were stayed as part of a plea deal.

Holz had been drinking with other off-duty officers at a downtown bar prior to hitting Severight as he walked across Main Street at Sutherland Avenue on Oct. 10, 2017.

Holz was travelling 92 km/h in the 50 km/h zone five seconds before he struck Severight. He slowed down to about 76-79 km/h by the time he struck the victim, the Crown prosecutor told court.

Holz was sentenced to 30 months and was granted parole after serving 10 months.

An off-duty city police officer, Derek Harvey-Zenk, rear-ended Crystal Taman, a 40-year-old mother of three, while she was stopped at a red light in East St. Paul in February 2005.

Harvey-Zenk had been partying with other city police.

In a controversial plea deal, Harvey-Zenk was convicted of dangerous driving causing death. Other charges of refusing a breathalyzer, impaired driving causing death and criminal negligence causing death were stayed.

It was later revealed those charges were dropped because East St. Paul police botched the investigation. That police department was disbanded and the province held a public inquiry into the matter in 2008.

The IIU, which probes police-related incidents that resulted in serious injury or death, was created as a result of recommendations from the inquiry.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca