City cop charged with impaired driving Officer found behind wheel of idling vehicle after 911 caller reported man 'possibly in medical distress'
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/01/2021 (1337 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A five-year veteran of the Winnipeg Police Service has been charged with impaired driving.
Christopher Logan, 29, was found intoxicated behind the wheel of a running vehicle on the 500 block of McMeans Avenue East in Transcona late Tuesday morning, police said.
General patrol officers were called to the scene for a well-being check after a caller told a 911 operator they had seen a man “possibly in medical distress” inside a running vehicle.
When they arrived at about 11:15 a.m., officers placed the driver — later determined to be Logan — under arrest after they observed signs of impairment. Logan was off duty at the time.
The WPS notified the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba of the arrest. The police watchdog has taken a monitor role in the case.
Logan was released from custody on a promise to appear in court and the WPS professional standards unit continued the investigation. On Friday, he was formally charged with impaired driving.
The Free Press sent a request for comment to the WPS Friday, asking where Logan was driving to or from at the time of his arrest, given that bars are closed and private gatherings were under household members-only public-health restrictions at the time.
In response, a police spokesman said in a written statement there was no information the force could provide regarding the circumstances prior to his arrest.
This is not the first time a Winnipeg police officer has been charged with impaired driving. The two highest-profile cases in the force’s history involved the deaths of Crystal Taman and Cody Severight.
On Feb. 25, 2005, Derek Harvey-Zenk — an off-duty police constable who spent the previous night partying with fellow officers — drove a pickup truck into the back of Taman’s car while she was stopped at a red light during her commute to work.
The 40-year-old mother of three was killed instantly. Due to a botched investigation — in which members of the now-disbanded East St. Paul Police Department were accused of lying to protect a brother in blue — Harvey-Zenk got off with what many called a slap on the wrist.
While he initially faced four charges, including refusing a breathalyzer and impaired driving causing death, a controversial plea bargain saw all charges dropped, except for dangerous driving causing death. As a result, he received a conditional sentence of two years house arrest.
On Oct. 10, 2017, off-duty police Const. Justin Holz left a downtown bar, where he and several other officers were having an end-of-shift party. Holz struck and killed Cody Severight, 23, on Main Street while speeding in his vehicle.
He fled the scene but called police a short time later to turn himself in. In October 2019, he was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death.
That was a bad year for members of the force being charged for impaired driving.
In November 2017, police Chief Danny Smyth held a press conference to announce that two of his officers had been charged with impaired driving. The press conference was called after media began pressing for details about one of the cases.
The following week, after again being confronted by reporters, Smyth confirmed two more officers had been charged with impaired driving earlier that year. Alongside Holz, that brought the total number of Winnipeg police charged with impaired driving to five in 2017.
A Twitter post from Smyth Friday afternoon said Logan will be removed from regular duties, offered help if needed and held accountable in a criminal proceeding.
ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @rk_thorpe
Ryan Thorpe
Reporter
Ryan Thorpe likes the pace of daily news, the feeling of a broadsheet in his hands and the stress of never-ending deadlines hanging over his head.
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