Lawsuit against cop in crash settled
EDMONTON JOURNAL
A civil suit against a veteran police officer involved in a fiery fatal crash on Yellowhead Trail in 2001 has been settled out of court.
The horrific crash between a police car driven by Const. Ken Brander and a Ford Tempo killed Giovanni Aleman, 7, and seriously burned his younger brother, Jonathan.
The details of the settlement are confidential. But a statement of claim filed in 2001 by Edmonton lawyer Melanie Watson on behalf of Jonathan and his mother, Gloria Ramirez, was seeking $5 million on behalf of the boy, and $200,000 for Ramirez, along with what other costs the court awarded.
The Ramirez family is expected to comment Wednesday.
The civil case, which was to begin today, named Brander, former police chief Bob Wasylyshen, the City of Edmonton, the boys’ grandfather, Carlos Ramirez, and the Ford Motor Company as defendants.
The two boys were riding in the back seat of their grandfather’s Ford Tempo on June 2, 2001, when he tried to turn left from Yellowhead Trail onto 121st Street.
Brander was speeding at 120 kilometres per hour down Yellowhead Trail in an unmarked police car without lights or sirens, trying to catch up with two cars, when he T-boned the Tempo.
Neither Brander nor his partner had activated the police car’s lights or sirens because they didn’t want to alert the cars they were following.
The impact split the Tempo in two and it burst into flames. Giovanni was thrown from the vehicle and died in hospital four days later.
Jonathan had third-degree burns to most of his body. He lost his left arm below the elbow and all the fingers on his right hand. He also suffered disfiguring burns to his mouth, ears and nose. Gloria Ramirez, 30, was severely injured.
Brander was charged in the fall of 2001 with criminal negligence causing death and three counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm. Eighteen months later he was acquitted on all four counts after a 21-day trial with more than 50 witnesses.
University of Alberta law professor Sanjeev Anand said Sunday that even though Brander was found not guilty in a criminal trial, a civil case against him would of likely been successful, which is likely why it was settled out of court.
“I can tell you that the Crown thought they had a reasonable chance of conviction in the criminal trial where you have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt and you have to prove gross negligence. Given that, I would think a civil suit would have been successful given the standard of proof is a balance of probablities and it’s simple negligence,” Anand said.
“A lot of people think because (Brander) was acquitted in the criminal trial that he’d be acquitted in a civil matter, and I think the O.J. Simpson case shows quite clearly what happens in a criminal trial doesn’t necessarily happen in a civil trial,” Anand said.
In 2005, a fatality inquiry report recommended city police revamp policy or create new guidelines for “catch-up” manoeuvres after concluding Brander and his partner were clearly not in a pursuit at the time of the crash.
“The absence of guidelines in this area is surprising,” Judge David McNab said in his 16-page report. “Given the wide-open range of discretion in how the manoeuvre is presently conducted, and its frequency of use, development (and instruction) of minimal guidelines would enhance the safety of the public and police officers alike,” McNab wrote.
According to the police pursuit policy, a chase begins after an officer catches up to a suspect’s car, identifies it, then radios he has begun a pursuit.
The only rule that governs a pursuit is common sense.
Although McNab said police could be more careful with pursuits, he also questioned why the boys’ grandfather pulled into the intersection. The police car was visible as far as 78 metres, or three-quarters of the length of a football field, even without its emergency equipment.
A fatality inquiry is not allowed to find blame; it can only make recommendations on how to prevent similar incidents and deaths from happening.
The statement of claim also blamed Carlos Ramirez for causing the collision through his negligence in making an unsafe left-hand turn, failing to keep a proper lookout and for not taking proper or any evasive action to avoid the crash.