RCMP officer charged with dangerous driving

Sheri Lamb, Fort Saint James Courier

A former Fort St. James RCMP constable faces dangerous driving charges in connection to an incident on the Tachie Reserve on Aug. 20, 2006.

Cst. Curtis Barrett has been charged with dangerous driving by the Crown and will appear in Fort St. James court on Sept. 18.

Agatha Joseph, a 23-year-old mother, injured her hip and pelvis when she was run over by the police vehicle, but the RCMP investigation concluded that Barrett wasn’t at fault for the young woman’€™s injuries.

Barrett will face charges for allegedly hitting a 26-year-old male who was walking along the side of the road.

The decision to charge Barrett with hitting the male, and not Joseph, came after an investigation by the North District Criminal Crash Investigation team and the North District Regional GIS.

RCMP investigators made several visits to the scene and more than 80 statements were taken from witnesses who were in attendance in the area that night.

The incident took place when two members from the Fort St. James detachment were conducting a regular patrol in Tachie, 56 km north of town.

Around 1 a.m. the officers observed a large group of people at a local residence, when a suspected impaired driver went by the police truck. Officer Barrett pulled out of his parking space to pull over the suspect vehicle when he allegedly hit the 26-year-old male.

The male received minor injuries, and as Barrett was attending to him a large crowd assembled, and, according to the RCMP investigation, became aggressive towards Barrett.

A second police truck in the area saw the crowd and stopped to try to help, said the RCMP report. Unable to control the situation, the officers decided to leave the area to prevent further injury and to defuse the situation. This is where Joseph was injured.

Through the reports of various witnesses the RCMP concluded Joseph either slipped, fell or was pushed near the back of the police truck. Unaware of the young woman’€™s plight Barrett drove away, running over Joseph with the rear driver’s side tire.

After leaving the scene the officers notified BC Ambulance and Joseph was taken to Stuart Lake Hospital, before being transferred to Prince George Regional Hospital.

After concluding their investigation into the incident, RCMP forwarded their findings to Crown counsel. The Crown decided the incident with the male met their charge approval standards, while the situation with Joseph did not.

Joseph has moved away from the Tachie Reserve and RCMP was unable to contact her to get her statement into the events of the evening.

Cst. Barrett transferred to the Lower Mainland where he’s working with the RCMP Explosive Disposal Unit (EDU), or bomb squad.