S TANDARD TERRACE
1.30
$
$1.24 PLUS 6¢ GST
VOL. 27 NO. 24
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Steroid use added to suit against officer By MARGARET SPEIRS
TYLER DUNCAN PHOTO
■■ Ready on the rope THE BANDSTRA Big Boys are ready to pull at the fourth annual Terrace Fire Truck Pull fundraiser put on by the United Way along Emerson St. Sept. 27. Eight teams competed for bragging rights of heaving the fire engine down the street and across the finish line in the fastest time. Terrace firefighters unseated the three-time champions Acklands-Grainger with time of 14.72 seconds on their second of two pulls. And that was without gloves which were offered to every team. Total amount of money raised was $4,143 and two teams tied for raising the most with $1,000 each: Acklands-Grainger and Finning Terrace. Northern Health was named Most Spirited/Best Costumed team for their cowboy attire.
ALLEGATIONS OF steroid use are now a factor in a civil suit filed by a woman who says a former Terrace RCMP officer assaulted her husband to the point it left him with a permanent brain injury two years ago. In a civil suit filed January 17, 2014, Heather Prisk said RCMP Const. Brian Heideman assaulted her husband Robert Wright at the RCMP detachment after he was arrested April 21, 2012 for impaired driving, resulting in her husband suffering brain damage to the point that he now requires full-time care. The civil case, amended Sept. 22, 2014, now alleges under the legal basis for the case, that Heideman was ingesting steroids “which caused him to be unduly aggressive and violent with the plaintiff....” The civil suit states Wright was taken by Heideman and two other officers into a cell, where he was told to kneel on a concrete bench above the floor and, while kneeling on the bench in an uncomfortable position, Wright tried to reposition his legs at which point Heideman “violently, unexpectedly and negligently threw the plaintiff (Wright) to the ground, causing the plaintiff’s head to sustain injuries, the most significant of which was a traumatic brain injury and thereafter dragging the plaintiff across the cell floor while unconscious and kneeling on his backside,” read the civil case. “The incident resulted in the plaintiff being assaulted, battered and/or negligently injured by the defendant Heideman who used excessive and negligent amounts of force when dealing with the plaintiff....” continued the civil case. Heideman and two other officers, all of whom have since been transferred, were reprimanded and docked eight days pay by a RCMP disciplinary board for involvement with steroids. The disciplinary report, released this past July, said that from March 27, 2008 to May 30, 2012, Heideman worked out at a local gym along with other RCMP officers and had discussed with a former officer, who subsequently resigned from the force, the possibility of using steroids as part of his
fitness regime. During that time, Heideman had ordered and received steroids which he “had intended to utilize for his own personal consumption...” and each time he “was aware that the steroids he obtained were substances listed under...the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act,” said the disciplinary report. The possession of steroids is not illegal but it is illegal to traffic steroids, said the report. And Terrace RCMP inspector Dana Hart, who has been the officer in charge of the detachment here since Aug. 15, 2011, has also been added in the suit’s amended information. The document now includes under its statement of facts that “Inspector Dana Hart was at all material times the most senior officer responsible for the Terrace RCMP detachment.” It also states that the “actions of Hart constitute negligence, the particulars of which are failing to suspend, discipline or take remedial action against Heideman when Hart knew or should [have] known that Heideman was predisposed to act violently towards people ....”
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Nomination period opens THE OFFICIAL nomination period for the 2014 local government elections began yesterday, with prospective winners having until 4 p.m. Oct. 10 to file their candidacy papers. Open in Terrace is the mayor’s seat along with six council seats, while there are two Terrace and one Thornhill seat open on the Coast Mountains School District board and one Thornhill seat on the Kitimat-Stikine regional district board and one seat in the rural area north of Terrace reaching down to Lakelse Lake and further south. Unlike past elections, which were for three-year terms, all terms are now to be four years. Those wishing to become candidates have to be at least 18 years of age and be a Canadian citizen.
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Heritage trees
Wild Terrace
Puck drop
Project tags trees to ensure irreplaceable ones are protected \COMMUNITY A10
The nightclub scene is much different now than in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s \NEWS A5
River Kings host home opener this Saturday against the Steelheads \SPORTS A21