It was a prosecutor's nightmare.
That's how a legal expert brought in from British Columbia described the case now being probed at the Taman Inquiry.
Richard Peck, a criminal lawyer with an extensive background as a special prosecutor, says the case was extremely troubling for any prosecutor to be presented with.
Peck testified Thursday that the investigation conducted by the East St. Paul Police Service was inadequate. He believes it would've been difficult to prove the three alcohol-related charges against Derek Harvey-Zenk that were eventually dropped.
"Certain mistakes were made in police dealings with Mr. Zenk that incapacitated the prosecutor in dealing with certain of the charges," he said.
The inquiry is investigating why those impaired driving charges were dropped. The off-duty police officer was driving a truck that struck and killed Crystal Taman in February 2005. Zenk was sentenced to two years house arrest.
Peck's testimony seemed to back-up the claim of Marty Minuk, the special prosecutor appointed to the case against Zenk,
He was on the stand at the Taman inquiry Wednesday.
He said he didn't see any other option, but to drop the impaired driving charges.
While he was on the stand, commission counsel David Paciocco, grilled Minuk about allegedly not telling the family that he had made a plea bargain with the defense.
Minuk denied the charge.
"The family understood they might not like what I had to do -- but they understood what I had to do," he said with his face in his hands.
But Crystal Taman's husband rejected that claim once again. He says he told Minuk more than once that he was against a plea bargain.
