As I waited Wednesday for the Taman Inquiry's long-anticipated last witness, a media colleague made a prediction.
"I think he'll be pretty repentant."
I was hoping for more than remorse from Derek Harvey-Zenk, the former Winnipeg police officer and corrections officer who is the man at the centre of the Taman inquiry.
I was hoping for the truth.
As it turned out my media colleague was wrong about the remorse.
As for the truth . . .
Tall, straight and sombre in a black suit, Harvey-Zenk began his testimony in a hopeful way.
By swearing on a Bible to to tell the truth about an all-night police drinking party that ended with him driving his Dodge pickup into the back of Crystal Taman's small car.
The inquiry had grown weary of hearing a chorus of "I can't recalls" to questions put to officers who testified about a shift-ending bar party that adjourned to a cop's home.
Harvey-Zenk, as it happened, would offer a variation on "can't-recall."
Memory loss.
The University of Winnipeg graduate, who majored in justice and law enforcement, couldn't offer a conclusive reason for the memory loss.
He testified all he can recall are "sound bites" and "snaphots of faces" from the hours surrounding the collision.
Maybe, he offered, it's because he "banged" his head in the accident, although he didn't produce a medical record to substantiate that he suffered much more than a bit of blood on his nose and a cut to the inside of his lip.
Or maybe it's post-traumatic stress that has impaired his memory, which can happen. He testified that a psychologist told him the "night terrors" and "hallucinations" he's been experiencing suggest post-traumatic stress.
Again, there was no note from a doctor that the inquiry could file. No diagnosis.
Clearly, judging by the kind and the tone of his questions, inquiry counsel David Paciocco was -- shall we say -- highly skeptical of Harvey-Zenk's claim of memory loss.
Little wonder given a report Paciocco was able to file. It was prepared by a psychologist who treats police officers and who said, after assessing him, that Harvey-Zenk displayed "uncontrolled sadness".
But no memory loss.
That report was done on July 17, 2007. Almost two and a half years after the accident.
Yet yesterday, all Harvey-Zenk said he remembers are sound bites and snapshots that are mostly trivial disjointed details.
Except for one.
A snapshot, frozen forever in his conscience, of standing over Crystal Taman's mangled car right after the collision. Helplessly watching her last moments.
In a letter, filed as an exhibit, his mother, Pam Zenk , elaborated about how that moment impacted her son:
"His first thought every morning is that he is responsible for the death of another human being. He saw her die and that image has stayed with him, and will for a lifetime."
That would be understandable.
What isn't, though, is that Harvey-Zenk, who expressed remorse at his sentencing hearing -- didn't do it again Wednesday.
Even when he was given the opportunity at the end of his testimony.
Instead he stepped down from the stand, and after most of the inquiry room had cleared, he stood with his wife's arm around him.
Appearing to wipe away tears.
I'm afraid, as his mother wrote, it will be like that for the rest of his life.
That's why I was hoping to hear the truth -- and remorse -- from Derek Harvey-Zenk. For his own sake.
The truth, as they say, might have set him free.
Instead he claimed, unconvincingly, to be a victim of memory loss. But, he can't blame memory loss for forgetting to do the right thing.
And say 'sorry.'
gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca
PREVIOUS
