Pubdate: Thu, 23 Nov 2000
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2000, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Forum: http://forums.theglobeandmail.com/
Author: Colin Freeze, Police Reporter

POLICE OFFICERS FACE FRAUD, THEFT CHARGES

TORONTO -- Eight Toronto Police officers were criminally charged last
night in a "theft scheme" that involved misappropriation of money
earmarked for investigations while they were part of a downtown drug
unit.

A sombre police Chief Julian Fantino announced the charges last night,
the second time this year a group of experienced officers has been
charged with misappropriating funds while on duty.

The officers charged all have more than 10 years experience with the
force.

They have been suspended with pay. All have been charged with theft,
fraud, forgery and breach of trust.

Chief Fantino would not say how much money is alleged to be
missing.

He said the officers will also face disciplinary charges -- 98 in
total.

In announcing the charges, Chief Fantino said that "honesty and
integrity are non-negotiable" requirements for his police officers.

Since being appointed earlier this year, Chief Fantino has repeatedly
said that he won't accept any disciplinary transgressions by his officers.

In April, five officers from a high-profile squad that hunts down
parole violators and prison escapees were charged with
misappropriating about $5,000 in cash intended for informants.

To uncover the charges announced yesterday, an internal audit looked
at the period between December, 1997 and December, 1998. Chief Fantino
didn't get into specifics, but described a careful investigation that
involved a force probing its own members.

"Throughout this investigation, there was consultation and input
ongoing with the Crown's office and there was a great deal of dialogue
with the conduct of the investigation as it progressed," he said.

He said "appropriate authorities" at the Department of Justice and at
the Attorney-General's office were notified and kept informed of the
progress of the investigation.

"Regrettably, it's come to this unhappy conclusion," Chief
Fantino.

He said he did not know whether any of the funds have been
recovered.

Charged last night were constables Sean McGuinness, James Leslie,
Joseph Miched, Jaroslaw Cieslik, Jonathan Reid and Raymond Pollard.

Detective Constable Steven Correia and Staff Sergeant John Schertzer
were also charged yesterday.

Several of the officers have made the headlines before.

In 1998, Staff Sgt. Schertzer, Det. Constable Correia and constables
Reid and Miched were among officers named in a case in which a Toronto
police-complaint investigator found that two men were unjustly
detained, strip-searched and had their homes searched in October of
1997, without police obtaining a warrant.

A ruling found that charges of discreditable conduct were warranted
against the officers, but a police-force adjudicator dismissed the
complaint on a time-limit technicality.

But some of the officers charged have also been in the news for their
good deeds as well.

Constable McGuinness discovered a hydroponic lab under a bogus
drycleaning shop this June. Constable Leslie was fired at in a
standoff with a depressed man who eventually killed himself in 1991.
He also rescued eight tenants from a burning rooming house in 1990.

Staff Sgt. Schertzer was involved in a high-profile, $1-million drug
bust, when three suspects were found with a knapsack full of cocaine
in the back of a cab.

The charged officers will appear in court in January. 
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