Police officers 'drank a lot' on night before fatal crash: former waitress
CBC News | Posted: July 16, 2008 8:52 PM | Last Updated: July 17, 2008
Boss told her to 'play dumb' with investigators, inquiry hears
A former waitress at a Winnipeg restaurant testified Wednesday that she did not tell the truth to investigators about serving alcohol to off-duty Winnipeg police officers in the hours before the crash that killed Crystal Taman in February 2005.
Chelsea O'Halloran, who was working at Branigan's on Leila Avenue on the night before the crash, told the Taman inquiry she served about two dozen police officers that night.
The night was a quiet one at the restaurant until a group of officers from Winnipeg's North End Division 13 called ahead with a reservation for 20 to 25 people, she said. "They were ready to have a good time."
O'Halloran said she had served several officers in the group before, and that they received special prices on wings — 30 cents — and draft beer, at $2.75 per pint. Some of the officers were regulars at the restaurant, she said.
Each officer paid his or her own bill, but lawyers for the inquiry couldn't obtain those records from the restaurant, which no longer operates at that location; all they could get was the total sales bill.
O'Halloran sold 3½ times the amount of beer she'd sold the night before. The restaurant sold 68 pints at $2.75 apiece, the deal the police officers got.
O'Halloran testified that there were also pitchers of beer on their tables she didn't sell: she says they may have been free. Branigans gave away 19 free drinks that day, compared with just two the previous day.
'Loud and obnoxious'
As the evening went on, O'Halloran said, several of the officers became drunk.
"Towards the end of the night, they had all drank a lot, so they were getting loud, there were a few people doing some silly things, and for the most part they were all just loud and obnoxious," she said.
At least one of the officers made an inappropriate comment to her, she said: "He was just telling the young cops to look at my bum."
Another officer, Sgt. Sean Black, was familiar to O'Halloran; she said she had served him on several previous occasions.
"I've seen him time and time before coming in sober and leaving drunk," she said. "He's a very quiet person when he comes in, he doesn't have much to say. Towards the end of the night, when he's started to drink and drinking more, he gets louder and he starts talking and he's more sociable."
O'Halloran testified she believed as many as 15 of the officers were drunk, each consuming somewhere around eight or nine beers.
She told the inquiry a man she later believed to be Derek Harvey-Zenk might have drunk at least that many beers that night, although she said she couldn't be sure.
But that's not what she told investigators in the days following the fatal crash, O'Halloran admitted. She told the Winnipeg Police Services's professional standards unit that no one appeared to be drunk.
Told to 'play dumb'
O'Halloran told the inquiry her boss, Rodrigo Bravo, told her to keep her answers short and not to remember too much.
"He didn't want to be held liable for anything, and he was also friends with a few of them," she said. "I don't feel good about doing it, but again, I did it because my manager had asked me to keep my answers very short and play dumb."
Bravo was friends with Winnipeg police officers and he wanted to protect them, O'Halloran said.
Bravo appeared briefly on the stand on Wednesday, and said he is friends with Sgt. Black. His testimony will continue Thursday.
O'Halloran told the inquiry she decided to come clean about the officers' intoxication after reading accounts of how the tragedy had affected the Taman family.
"I just felt that they needed more answers than they had gotten," she said.
'Had too many'
Darcy Gerardy, the night shift supervisor at Branigan's, testified that he'd had little interaction with the officer while they were being served. But he said he did approach them as they were leaving, because he was concerned a few of them were intoxicated.
"I know there were a few that had too many," he said.
"I brought it to their attention that I was concerned. They said, 'Don't worry, we'll drive them home.'"
He never talked to the restaurant's manager about the exchange or about the crash, he testified.
Bravo took the stand briefly Wednesday and said he is good friends with Sgt. Black, who is next on the witness list. After the group of officers left Branigan's, some went to Black's home to continue the party.
The police officers at the bar that night all gave statements to the professional standards unit of the Winnipeg Police Service. Their recollection of the evening included statements suggesting it was just a night out for a few wings after work. Many said they didn't notice anyone in the party being intoxicated.
Harvey-Zenk, also known as Derek Harveymordenzenk, was initially charged with refusing a breathalyzer test, impaired driving causing death and criminal negligence causing death, but those charges were dropped without explanation when he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death.
He received a conditional sentence of two years house arrest and has since turned in his police badge.
The inquiry, led by commissioner Roger Salhany, a former Ontario Superior Court justice, first examined the treatment of the Taman family by the court system and victims' services. That portion of the inquiry wrapped up in June.
The inquiry is now looking at the conduct of police involved in the investigation into the crash that killed Taman. It will also examine the conduct of Harvey-Zenk and other Winnipeg police officers before the crash, and how lawyers arrived at the plea agreement that spared him time behind bars.
Salhany is scheduled to deliver a final report to Manitoba's attorney general by Sept. 30.