Indianapolis - The families of the victims involved in the August 6th crash with a Metro Police officer responded to Wednesday's release of IMPD's internal investigation. The attorney for Officer David Bisard also spoke out.
According to the report, not one of the 67 witnesses interviewed said they saw any evidence Officer Bisard was drunk, even though a blood alcohol test determined him to be intoxicated.
Mary Wells' son Eric was killed in the crash. She listened to the report and says she can't believe the officers didn't smell alcohol on Officer David Bisard's breath. Bisard was found to have a blood alcohol content of .19 after the crash, but that evidence was thrown out due to conflicting policies within IMPD about where the blood draw was conducted, the report found.
"I think it's possible we could have a very experienced drinker, but that also raises questions about why wasn't there some supervision, why weren't there questions about this officer raised earlier," said Bruce Kehoe.
The attorney for Kurt Weekly, one of the bikers who was critically injured, questioned why the blood draw couldn't be used as evidence to prove Bisard was drunk when so many officials were there to witness it.
"I was surprised, I gotta tell you, to see that there was a sergeant, the FOP President, and an attorney for the Fraternal Order of Police present during the blood draw, but yet, it's not done appropriately according to the statute, to be admissible. That's a pretty sad commentary," he said.
"If that blood draw is right, that means all 67 people are dead wrong and I don't know if that's true," said John Kautzman, attorney for Officer Bisard.
Officer Bisard's attorney maintains his client was not drinking that day.
"The .19 isn't a fact. It's an allegation. We don't know all the things that could have gone wrong in the collection, the testing, the storage, all of those issues that have to go into the accuracy of a sample," said Kautzman.
However, the report goes into minute detail as it describes the procedure for the blood draw and then the chain of custody regarding the samples taken from David Bisard.
Eyewitness News also spoke with the attorney for Mary Mills, who was seriously injured in the crash.
"We do know this. We do know Mayor Ballard has admitted that the police department was at fault. We do know he admits that the department failed. We do know that the conduct of Officer Bisard was egregious and intentional to the extent that this careless and reckless behavior - killing a person and maiming two people for life - could have been prevented," said Mark Ladendorf.
Eric Wells' mother told Eyewitness News that this is about truth and said, "We haven't gotten the truth or justice yet."
Kehoe said his client has made a lot of progress, but suffered brain damage and other injuries. His family is looking at options for rehab that include speech therapy.
