Pubdate: Mon, 30 Jan 2012
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Peter Small

BANK WORKER'S RECOLLECTION CLASHES WITH POLICE TALLY OF SEIZED MONEY

Drug squad officers emptied =93many, many=94
hundred-dollar bills from a safety deposit box
belonging a drug dealer's mother, but later
reported seizing not a single one, a police corruption trial has heard.

Dean Menchions, 39, a CIBC employee, testified
that two long-haired plainclothes police officers
arrived at his Avenue Rd. branch on the morning
of May 1, 1998, to examine a safety deposit box.

He accompanied the officers, one of whom
identified himself as Correia, to the vault, he testified Monday.

Menchions said he later learned the box belonged
to Greeba Quigley, mother of Christopher Quigley, a drug dealer.

One of the officers unlocked the box and shook
its contents into a large clear plastic bag held
by the other officer, Menchions said.

Menchions said he saw =93many, many, many
hundred-dollar bills, hundreds of hundred-dollar bills,=94 falling into the
 bag.

I was surprised at how many bills could fit in
such a small box,=94 he told prosecutor Milan Rupic.

The jury has been told they will hear that when
then-Det. John Schertzer =AD the other officer at
the bank =AD prepared a property receipt for the
seized money, he did not report any
hundred-dollar bills. Instead he said the box
contained 22 thousand dollar bills and 17
fifty-dollar bills, for a total of $22,850.

Christopher Quigley, 46, testified earlier this
month that police viciously assaulted him after
arresting him on April 30, 1998, and on the
following day seized $54,000 of his cash from his
mother's safety deposit box, later returning only the $22,850.

Emily Beaton, one of Schertzer's lawyers,
suggested to Menchions that he was mistaken about
the denominations, and that he thought he saw
hundred-dollar bills because he believes drug dealers prefer them.

No,=94 Menchions replied.

Menchions was testifying at the Ontario Superior
Court trial of Schertzer, 54; Steven Correia, 44;
Ned Maodus, 48; Raymond Pollard, 47; and Joseph Miched, 53.

The former Central Field Command drug squad
officers collectively face 29 charges, including
attempting to obstruct justice, perjury, assault
and extortion, between 1997 and 2002.

In earlier testimony Monday, Greeba Quigley,
Christopher's mother, agreed that her son, for
several years, had misled her into believing
police had not returned any of the money they
seized from her safety deposit box.

The trial continues Tuesday.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom