Worker noticed 'hostility' between Taman family, prosecutor: inquiry
A victims-rights worker assigned to the family of Crystal Taman noticed tension building between the family and the special prosecutor assigned to the case, according to testimony Tuesday at an inquiry into the crash that killed Taman.
Taman, 40, died in 2005 after her car 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.
Lesley McCorrister, who was employed with the province's victims bill of rights unit, met several times with the Taman family and special Crown prosecutor Marty Minuk as the case made its way through the courts.
Hostility between Taman, Minuk suspected
On Tuesday, McCorrister told the inquiry she received a phone call from the victim's husband, Robert Taman, days after a preliminary hearing in 2007; he was upset and didn't understand why the charges were dropped, she said.
McCorrister testified she told Taman he should talk to Marty Minuk about it — but when she tried to arrange a meeting, she said, Minuk told her he couldn't meet with the family until after sentencing took place.
"I think he was concerned. I think there was, at that point, maybe some hostility building between Mr. Taman and Mr. Minuk," said McCorrister, who has been helping people navigate the court system for 17 years.
Minuk has yet to testify at the inquiry.
Earlier in the day, Jacqueline St. Hill, head of the prosecutions in Winnipeg, clarified the role of Crown prosecutors.
"The relationship of the Crown attorney to the victim — it probably can't be said enough that the Crown is not the victim's lawyer, and we still find misunderstandings on that particular point alone," she said.
The inquiry, 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. Salhany is scheduled to deliver a final report to the province's attorney general by Sept. 30.