Police found negligent after investigating 17-year-old hockey player's passing
Several years have passed since Ben Teague's death during an overnight team building event, and now four police officers have been found negligent.
Ben Teague joined 13 of his teammates as well as four coaches from the Oakville Rangers on September 13, 2019, for a weekend at the YMCA Cedar Glen Outdoor Centre in Schomberg, Ontario. There were going to be team-building exercises and they would be staying there for two nights.
Two years had passed following Ben's death, and the police had still not interviewed all of the Rangers players and coaches. They were not making this case a priority to determine exactly what went wrong. Finally, in September 2021, a doctor by the name of Chris Veenama issued a warrant so that police could obtain the roster of players and personnel who were at the camp that fateful day, as clearly none of the police officers involved had been making any progress in this case.
The OPP explained in October 2023 the exact reasoning as to why the four police officers were determined to be negligent.
According to York Regional Police policy cited in the report, police responding to death investigations are supposed to preserve the integrity of evidence by isolating witnesses to ensure they do not discuss their observations with each other; observe and identify all people or vehicles leaving the scene, including potential witnesses.
«This was not done,» the report said. «No statements were taken or tasked to be taken from the boys or coaches by Sgt. Worthman while at Cedar Glen, and only some contact details were recorded in his notebook. Further, it is not believed the boys and coaches were separated by Sgt. Worthman.»
«This was not done,» the report said. «No statements were taken or tasked to be taken from the boys or coaches by Sgt. Worthman while at Cedar Glen, and only some contact details were recorded in his notebook. Further, it is not believed the boys and coaches were separated by Sgt. Worthman.»
In January 2022, the cause of Ben's death was determined to be acute myocardial injury with necrosis associated with recent alcohol consumption. Ben's parents, Greg and Susan, filed a $1 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Oakville Rangers, the entire team's coaches, the Ontario Minor Hockey Association, as well as the YMCA camp where the team-building event was taking place.
May Ben rest in peace, and here's hoping a tragedy like this never affects the minor league hockey community again.
Source:
Rick Westhead on X
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