Cleared in shooting: Family claimed he was under the influence, By: Lisa Rosetta

8/4/06, Salt Lake Tribune

A former West Valley City police officer who was cleared in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man last year was indicted in federal court Wednesday on a drug charge.  

    Steven C. Ward, 27, allegedly imported anabolic steroids, a Schedule III controlled substance, into the United States, according to the indictment. He will be issued a summons to appear in federal court.

    If convicted, Ward could face up to five years in federal prison and $250,000 in fines.

    Ward, who became the subject of an internal affairs investigation after he shot and killed 59-year-old Bounmy Ousa during an undercover operation, resigned June 30 for undisclosed reasons.

    While Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom cleared Ward in Ousa's shooting, Ward remained on paid administrative leave up until his resignation. Police spokesman Tom McLachlan confirmed Thursday the department was investigating Ward's alleged use of steroids after the Ousa family claimed in a federal lawsuit he was under the influence when the shooting occurred.

    West Valley City's internal affairs investigation was subpoenaed by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, which investigated Ward's alleged use and importation of the illegal drug, McLachlan said.

    The police spokesman said Ward was not experiencing so-called "roid rage," a slang term for violence under the influence of steroids, the night he shot Ousa.

    "The allegation that he was on steroids at the time of the shooting really wasn't an issue," he said.

    The department is now investigating rumors of other officers' alleged use of steroids, he said. "They [the rumors] are quite vague but we are taking them seriously and investigating them," he said.

    Ward was named as a defendant in the Ousa lawsuit in October 2005. Last month, the city settled with the family for $450,000, the largest payout for a wrongful death case in recent Utah police history.

    Ousa died outside his home July 7, 2005, after being shot several times at close range by Ward, who sat in an unmarked police

car parked near 3300 West and Brookway Drive with his partner, Matt Carman.

    The officers were conducting surveillance on a neighboring home, which was scheduled for a narcotics search warrant later in the evening.

    Ousa approached the vehicle and spoke with the officers, who identified themselves as police and asked him to return to his home. Ousa stepped away from the car and removed a "shiny, black, metallic object" from his waistband, according to police. Ward thought it was a gun and fired four times at Ousa.

    The object turned out to be a flashlight, according to the investigation. Ousa died a short time later.

    In its lawsuit, Ousa's family alleged Ward was under the influence of steroids when he fired the shots.

    A private investigator working for their attorney, Clark Newhall, found a small metal pipe with brown residue, vials containing a white crystalline substance and a short straw of the type used to inhale illegal substances in a trash can outside of Ward's home.

    The police, according to Newhall, also had evidence from an informant who said Ward used steroids and purchased the drugs from Eastern Europe.

    The Ousa shooting wasn't a first for Ward, according to the family's lawsuit. Ward allegedly "boasted" about a fatal shooting in Midvale in 2004, claiming responsibility for killing the victim by shooting him in the head and saying he had obtained the first notch on his belt.