Justice system failed family of woman killed in crash: victim's father

A Manitoba man whose daughter was killed in a car crash caused by an off-duty policeman says the officer received a lighter sentence than people who kill animals.

Sveinn Sveinson told a public inquiry the justice system failed him and his relatives.

Sveinson's daughter, 40-year-old Crystal Taman, was rear-ended at a traffic light by Derek Harveymordenzenk, then an off-duty Winnipeg police officer who had spent the night partying with colleagues.

Harveymordenzenk, also known as Derek Harvey-Zenk, agreed to a plea bargain and received a conditional sentence of two years of house arrest for dangerous driving causing death after the Crown dropped charges of impaired driving causing death and refusing a breathalyzer.

Sveinson told the inquiry that prosecutor Marty Minuk was pushing the idea of a conditional sentence from the outset, but Sveinson made it clear he opposed the idea.

Minuk has yet to testify at the inquiry, but suggested in court that he could only work with what evidence had been gathered by police.

Sveinson, who was a corrections officer in Manitoba for more than 30 years, led a letter-writing campaign in the years after his daughter's death in which he complained bitterly about how the case was being handled.

Ultimately, he got a meeting with Manitoba Justice Minister Dave Chomiak; Chomiak called the Taman Inquiry soon after the meeting.

The inquiry is a fact-finding mission, but it also leaves room for inquiry lawyers to call for another police investigation. Led by former Ontario Superior Court justice Roger Salhany, will first examine the treatment of the Taman family by the court system and victims' services.

Its focus will then shift to the conduct of police involved in the investigation into the crash that killed Taman.

The inquiry will also examine the conduct of Harveymordenzenk and other Winnipeg police officers before the crash, and how lawyers arrived at the plea agreement that spared Harveymordenzenk time behind bars.

Hearings are expected to take place over the next three months. The commissioner is scheduled to deliver a final report to the province's attorney general by Sept. 30.