Pubdate: Mon, 05 Nov 2012
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2012 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Timothy Appleby

CONVICTED OFFICERS DESERVE JAIL TIME, PROSECUTOR TELLS COURT

Five former Toronto drug-squad police officers convicted in June of
attempting to obstruct justice and perjury all deserve penitentiary
terms because their crimes "strike at the root of justice," their
sentencing hearing was told Monday.

"Honesty and integrity on the part of the police is a cornerstone of
the administration of criminal justice," lead prosecutor Milan Rupic
told the court, and the misconduct in this instance was "deliberate
and choreographed."

The drug squad team was led by John Schertzer, 54. The other former
members are Nebojsa (Ned) Maodus, 49; Joseph Miched, 53; Raymond
Pollard, 48; and Constable Steven Correia, 45, the only one of the
five to remain on the police force, suspended with pay.

All five were convicted of attempting to obstruct justice, which
carries a maximum 10-year penalty. Mr. Maodus, Mr. Pollard and
Constable Correia were also found guilty of perjury, which can bring
14 years What became known as the "dirty cops case" has lasted more
than 15 years, cost many millions of dollars, left careers in ruins
and sullied Canada's biggest municipal police force.

The five defendants sat at tables with their lawyers Monday afternoon
and listened to Mr. Rupic's remarks, which will continue Tuesday,
followed by defence submissions. A handful of grim-looking off-duty
police officers also attended the hearing, which is likely to last
several days.

Mr. Rupic urged sentencing judge Madame Justice Gladys Pardu of
Superior Court to give Mr. Schertzer a four-year term, and to sentence
the other four defendants to three years apiece.

Trying to obstruct justice and perjury - lying in court - in this case
were "two sides of the same coin," Mr. Rupic said, and the offences
become worse when committed by police officers because they are often
so hard to detect.

Collectively, the defendants' misconduct constitutes a breach of
trust, he said, and "normally a police officer will receive a greater
punishment than a civilian who had committed a comparable crime."

In his submissions, Mr. Rupic also rebuked the Toronto police union
for "minimizing and sanitizing" the crimes of the five in letters to
its membership.

"The seriousness of this case has not been accepted by=C2=85 the Toronto
Police Association," he said.

The five defendants belonged to the Central Field Command drug squad.
At trial, a jury that was plainly skeptical of some prosecution
evidence acquitted them of extortion, theft, assault causing bodily
harm and conspiracy.

The jurors listened to 30 witnesses, including several drug dealers,
and viewed hundreds of exhibits. But in the end all the convictions
flowed from the warrantless search of a small-time heroin dealer's
Scarborough apartment, and the cover-up that followed.

The events date back to 1997, when drug squad officers arrested two
suspects and searched their homes without warrants. After years of
legal manoeuvring, they and a sixth former drug-squad member finally
went to to trial in 2007 on a host of charges.

But in 2008, trial judge Mr. Justice Ian Nordheimer declared that all
the charges would be stayed because the "glacial pace" of the
proceedings, which had lasted several years, had denied the defendants
their constitutional right to a reasonably speedy trial.

The prosecutors appealed that decision, however, and in a 2009 ruling
the Ontario Court of Appeal mostly agreed with them, concluding that
given the complexity of the case, the delays were not
unreasonable.

Charges against the sixth defendant were stayed, but the charges
against the other five were resurrected and a new, five-month trial
ensued, resulting in the eight convictions.
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