Former chief recounts night

Harry Bakema swears on a bible before his testimony at the Taman Inquiry in July 14, 2008.

A former police chief of a Manitoba town denied accusations of his underlings that he gave special treatment to a fellow officer who caused a fatal highway crash.

Harry Bakema rejected suggestions he tried to protect Derek Harvey-Zenk, an off-duty Winnipeg officer who had been out all night partying, from the consequences of smashing his truck into a car driven by Crystal Taman on a clear February morning in 2005, killing her.

"I believe that no matter what, you make your own bed if you get into something like this, and I don't think there's any policeman out there that's going to throw their career away on somebody else's stupidity,'' Bakema testified Monday at a public inquiry into the crash and subsequent investigation.

Bakema, the former chief of police in East St. Paul, the bedroom community north of Winnipeg where the accident happened, was challenged by inquiry counsel David Paciocco on several aspects of the botched investigation that allowed Harvey-Zenk to avoid jail time.

Bakema arrived at the accident scene and found Harvey-Zenk standing by his truck. Harvey-Zenk quickly mentioned he was a police officer and Bakema recognized him as a former colleague from the days when the two both worked on the Winnipeg police force.

Bakema didn't interview Harvey-Zenk at the scene and didn't even ask him whether he had been drinking.

"Why didn't you ask him if he had anything to drink?,'' Paciocco asked.

"He wasn't talking, really,'' Bakema said.

"How do you know how he would have responded to that question without putting it to him?'' Paciocco fired back.

"I didn't ask him that,'' Bakema, a 32-year police veteran, replied.

Soon after the crash, Bakema took Harvey-Zenk to the back seat of Const. Jason Woychuk's cruiser, and told the officer Harvey-Zenk was a policeman.

"Why did you tell Constable Woychuk he was a cop?,'' Paciocco asked.

"I wasn't going to hide it,'' Bakema replied.

Harvey-Zenk was originally charged with several offences, including impaired driving causing death and refusing the breathalyzer. Because of a lack of evidence, most charges were dropped under a plea bargain that angered the victim's family.

In the end, Harvey-Zenk was sentenced to two years' house arrest on a charge of dangerous driving causing death.

Other officers have already laid much of the blame at Bakema's feet, telling the inquiry that:

Bakema has yet to respond to those accusations. His testimony continues Tuesday.

Bakema was removed from the East St. Paul force after a review was launched into the case. He currently sells real estate in Winnipeg.