Friday, August 27, 2010

CVS Employee Claims To Have Sold Alcohol To Bisard

An employee of CVS who does not wish to be identified has told Fox59 News he sold alcohol to Officer David Bisard while he was dressed in uniform prior to him crashing his police cruiser into a pair of motorcyclists, killing one and seriously injuring two others. The CVS employee sold a bottle of vodka to Bisard approximately 12 hours before the crash according to Zach Myers' exclusive report:

A CVS employee has come forward, claiming to be the cashier who sold alcohol to IMPD Officer David Bisard while he was in uniform.


The employee does not want to reveal their name or face but this worker does want to reveal what happened inside the CVS store on the northeast side roughly 12 hours before Bisard ran down a group of motorcyclists.

Wearing a company uniform and carrying a recent paystub, the employee said it was during an overnight shift at the store's 71st and Binford location when IMPD Officer David Bisard brought a bottle of vodka up to the counter, in full uniform.

"He seemed very sober. His eyes were a little red but he said he'd been up all night," the employee told Fox59 News.


The cashier claimed to be unaware at the time of IMPD's policy against officers buying alcohol in uniform but did mention Bisard's ID was checked. The employee then asked him if he was on or off duty.

"So, he promised me that he was not on duty, that he was off duty and that he just wanted to buy the vodka and go home and rest. So I... I sold it to him."

The employee doesn't remember if it was before or after midnight but was positive it was either late Wednesday night August 4th, or early Thursday morning August 5th... or late Thursday night, the 5th, or early Friday morning August 6th.

It was 11:21 a.m. Friday, the 6th, when Bisard crashed his cruiser, killing motorcyclist Eric Wells and injuring two others, including Kurt Weekly, who remains in a coma.
"I was very sad and hurt. And felt really bad for the family. And wish I would have never sold it to him."


It's not yet clear if Bisard actually was on duty at the time of the alcohol purchase and there's no proof the vodka he bought that night was what made his blood alcohol content register .19 after the crash.

This employee claimed Bisard was a regular at the store.

Reporter: "Had he bought alcohol in uniform before?"

CVS Employee: "Yes."

When asked why this cashier came forward to Fox59 News, risking being fired, the employee told us it was a sense of civic duty.

"I felt like this is what I had to do. And it's the right thing to do."
In a separate story, CVS released a statement saying a misunderstanding between the company and police led to prosecutor's obtaining a court order to obtain surveillance video footage from one of its stores. "It appears that a misunderstanding occurred during a request to review footage at another CVS location and we are taking immediate steps to correct this," Mike DeAngelis stated. "We believe we are already in compliance with the court order and we will continue to cooperate with county prosecutors in their investigation."

There is also good news for Lt. George Crooks, who Public Safety Director Frank Straub had removed as head of IMPD's Fatal Alcohol Crash Team (FACT) following the Bisard crash. He is being reinstated to his former position according to Fox59 News after it was determined he had been ordered not to go to the crash scene. Several other high-ranking officers at IMPD, including the number two and number three persons at the police agency, were demoted last weekend by Straub in response to police handling of Bisard's investigation. Straub has since apologized to Crooks for his premature decision to take an adverse employment action against him.

UPDATE: The Star says Fox59 News has it wrong. Straub has no intention of reinstating Crooks to his former position or apologizing to him. Hmmm.

6 comments:

Had Enough Indy? said...

Was there any word as to who told Crooks not to go to the scene?

Gary R. Welsh said...

That's one of the questions attorneys for the victims are asking, Pat.

Jon said...

Beside the who told him question, why was he told not to go to the scene? That could be could be construed as conspiratorial.

Retired Cop said...

Today (Friday) the Director's Office announced that Lt.George Crooks is not being put back in charge of the FACT Team and the Director is not going to say he is sorry..ch59 ran this story on rumor wrom FOP President Owensby....It is not true!!!

Jon said...

Wow, imagine that the head of the FOP lying to the press!

Marycatherine Barton said...

I can only imagine how guilty this poor CVS employee feels, and applaud him/her for coming forward with this information. I highly approve of this IMPD prohibition.