New police force should be appointed to take over investigation into death of teenaged hockey player, complaint says

W5: What Happened to Ben?, part one TSN's Rick Westhead investigates the death of Ben Teague at a team-building camp in Ontario. See related article for note about blurring.

An Oakville, Ont. couple has filed a request with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) to appoint a new police force to investigate the death of their 17-year-old son Benjamin who died during a hockey team-bonding event in September 2019.

Greg and Susan Teague allege in their complaint filed with the director on March 14 that the York Regional Police have failed to properly investigate Benjamin’s death. York Regional Police opened an investigation the day Benjamin died and the police service says its investigation remains active.

"York Regional Police have not conducted a proper investigation into the sudden death of our 17-year-old son Benjamin Teague," their complaint says. "They have been dismissive, rude, biased, unavailable, and willfully blind to the facts of this case. We believe that the way they have conducted themselves has obstructed the coroner and at every turn has made an actual investigation into our son’s sudden death next to impossible."

The OIPRD declined W5's request for comment.

The Toronto-based agency deals with most complaints against police in Ontario, including those that do not merit an SIU investigation. In 2021, it published 17 hearing decisions in cases with or without penalties.

Before the Teagues filed their complaint with the OIPRD, the York Regional Police provided W5 with a statement about their investigation into Benjamin’s death.

“Our officers have worked diligently throughout this lengthy investigation in conjunction with the Coroner’s Office,” York Regional Police said. “While this case remains open, our investigators have not found any evidence to suggest foul play or any criminality in this incident. Therefore, this matter continues to be a death investigation and not a homicide investigation.”

York Regional Police have not responded to a subsequent request for comment on the Teague’s request for a new police service to be assigned to their son’s death investigation.

Benjamin died following an overnight team-bonding event in September 2019 where coaches allegedly did not stop underage players from consuming alcohol and failed to take the matter seriously when a player said he was in severe distress.

A posthumous toxicology report concluded that Benjamin had the drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, in his system at the time of his death. The colourless, tasteless, odorless chemical, which is also known as a date-rape drug, can cause hallucinations and euphoria. When mixed with alcohol, it can be lethal even in small doses, Dr. Lewis Nelson, the Director of Medical Toxicology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School told W5 in an interview.

The Teague’s allege in a lawsuit filed Jan. 26, 2022 in Ontario Superior Court in Kitchener that the negligence of coaches with the Oakville Rangers Midget AA Red team during a September 2019 team event at a YMCA camp near Schomburg, Ont., contributed to the death of their son Benjamin.

The Ontario Minor Hockey Association, the Oakville Rangers Hockey Club, and coaches Mark Moro, Ted Blacker, Ian Blacker and Alex Susi are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

The OMHA and Rangers are named as defendants for allegedly failing to properly instruct the coaches on the importance of maintaining an alcohol-free event and having a safety and emergency plan. The OMHA and Rangers “have inexplicably permitted the coaches to continue in their roles” following Teague’s death, the lawsuit said.

The defendants allege in their statement of defence that the Rangers have a zero-tolerance policy for drugs and alcohol and that coaches didn’t know any of the players were consuming alcohol or drugs.

Moro and Susi emailed identical statements to W5 denying any allegation of wrongdoing.

“All team activities were properly supervised by the coaching staff,” the statements said. “The coaches had no knowledge of any activities in which our players were involved after curfew… At all times, the club and coaches required compliance with all team policies and codes of conduct, which included zero tolerance of drugs or alcohol at any team activities.”

In their complaint to the OIPRD, the Teagues allege that when York Regional Police officers arrived at the YMCA camp after Benjamin was taken to hospital in an ambulance, they didn’t speak to any of the 13 hockey players who had been with Benjamin overnight.

York Police went to the Teague home in Oakville within ten minutes of the parents returning home after Ben died, the family said in their complaint. They said that while Police promised to return within days to discuss their investigation findings, they didn’t return to speak with them until July 2020.

The family also alleges it has taken York Regional Police many weeks to respond to both their phone calls and to the coroner who has investigated Benjamin’s death.

The family says that when they finally obtained a copy of a police report in April 2021, the report was full of mistaken medical facts, and erroneous statements attributed to the Teague’s.

The original detective investigating Ben’s death was removed from the case in November 2019 with no explanation, the Teagues said, adding that the coronor’s office was still not aware in January 2021 that the original investigating officer was no longer working on the case.

The Teagues also say that even though they have repeatedly offered to give York police Benjamin’s cell phone because they say it might have evidence including photos or video, police for nearly four years have not agreed to take possession of the phone and try to bypass its security lock.