Additional charges laid against police officer charged in fatal hit-and-run

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This article was published 28/11/2017 (2881 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An off-duty Winnipeg Police Service officer’s arrest Sunday on impaired driving charges is raising questions about just how much of a problem exists within the force and how much information senior administration is prepared to share with the public.

And it comes barely a month after WPS Chief Danny Smyth assured Winnipeggers he was “concerned” about officers’ off-duty behaviour in the wake of a fatal hit-and-run on Main Street 10 days earlier, following an after-shift gathering of officers at a downtown bar. One of the officers who attended is now charged in the death of 23-year-old Cody Severight.

“One of the reasons I am here today, one of the reasons I was out up front originally, is to show people that when we discover wrongdoing or perceived wrongdoing, we brought that forward,” Smyth told a hastily arranged news conference Oct. 20 to announce the suspension of two other officers under investigation for possible interference with the hit-and-run investigation of 34-year-old Justin Holz, an eight-year member of the force.

Holz, who was arrested about seven kilometres from the scene, did not take a breathalyzer test until about three hours after Severight was killed.

“We discovered this, we brought it to (the Independent Investigative Unit of Manitoba),” Smyth said. “We will deal with that head-on.”

That was not the case Monday, a day after another eight-year veteran of the force was arrested in the 500 block of Enniskillen Avenue in West Kildonan after driving into a fence. He is charged with impaired care and control of a vehicle and refusing a breathalyzer. He was released on a promise to appear.

He has been put on administrative leave with pay, and the Independent Investigative Unit of Manitoba has been notified of the matter, Const. Jay Murray said Tuesday.

But the WPS chose not to include the arrest and list any charges laid on its regular morning press release Monday.

“We just felt it didn’t meet the threshold for a news release,” Murray said, suggesting police don’t regularly release details of impaired driving arrests.

“We weren’t hiding it… yes, he is a police officer, but at the same time there are many others.”

Zane Tessler, the IIU’s civilian director, said he has already decided to let Winnipeg police investigate the matter involving Sunday’s arrest.

Tessler said police are required to let his unit know when an officer has committed an offence, but depending on the seriousness, either the IIU would take over the investigation from a police department or the unit would let officers continue to investigate.

“I can determine to take over an investigation or that we’ll monitor an investigation,” he said. “At this stage, based on the information I’ve received, I’m satisfied a monitoring role is all we need.”

Tessler also announced Tuesday that Holz has now been charged with dangerous driving causing death, dangerous driving, and causing death while driving a motor vehicle with a blood-alcohol concentration exceeding 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, in addition to the iimpaired driving causing death and failing to stop at the scene of an accident involving a death charges laid last month.

The new charges are a result of the intense, ongoing investigation, he said.

“I am satisfied there are reasonable and probable grounds to lay each of the charges,” he said. “It comes after more in-depth analysis of all the surrounding evidence.”

Some of that evidence was obtained when investigators closed a section of Main Street earlier this month so the collision unit could conduct tests and reconstruct what happened.

The Free Press has earlier reported that before the collision Holz was with up to six colleagues drinking at The Pint on Garry Street after they all got off duty Oct. 10 at about 4:30 p.m.

Severight’s relatives said Tuesday they were pleased with the IIU’s decision to add the charges.

“I’m very happy,” said his grandmother, Gloria Lebold. “But I’m not surprised. We were upset because we heard they didn’t have him take the breathalyzer until much later. I’m not surprised more charges were laid — they should be,” she said. “He took a life away.”

Nancy Gabriel, Severight’s aunt, said the IIU phoned her Tuesday morning to let the family know the new charges would be announced later in the day.

“I think it’s good,” she said. “It is progress, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. This is really hard for me.”

Denise Elias, president of the Winnipeg chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said the fact another officer has been charged with a drinking-and-driving offence — especially during MADD’s national ribbon campaign to discourage people getting behind the wheel drunk during the holiday season — “is very disappointing.”

“It is discouraging. Regardless of the fact it may be minor damage to an inanimate object (the fence), it’s your trust that has been broken,” she said. “There are so many good officers who abide by the law; it must also be disappointing to them when this happens.

“MADD has worked for 35 years to try and stop impaired driving. We all hope there will be a time when there is no need for MADD.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca