THUNDER BAY – Charges against a driver involved in a fatal crash on Highway 61 were never brought to court, despite them being publicly announced by provincial police.
Rachel Legarde, a 45-year-old Fort William First Nation woman, was killed in a three-vehicle collision at the Kaministiquia River Bridge on Jan. 6, 2017.
One month later the OPP announced Gary Walker of Thunder Bay had been charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm.
But OPP Traffic Staff Sgt. Chris Lawrence said the charges were never actually brought to court and a decision was made last fall to not proceed with the case.
“The charges weren’t actually formally laid. In order for the charges to be laid an information has to be filed with the court system,” Lawrence said on Friday. “He was physically arrested and released at the time. He wasn’t taken into custody. Then as we gathered more information it was decided formal charges would not be laid.”
It’s not fair to say the arrest was premature, Lawrence said.
“I think we made the arrest based on the evidence we had at the time. Our responsibility is to search out and gather all the evidence we can,” Lawrence said.
“We did that in this case. We took an objective opinion and a decision was made in consultation with the Crown that charges would not proceed in the court process.”
Lawrence, who was not in his current role during the investigation and when the decision against laying charges was made, said he was told both Walker and Legarde’s family were kept updated during the process.
A relative of Legarde disputed that the family was made aware the case was dropped, saying it wasn’t until Thursday that her six children found out what was going on and are very upset.
