Pubdate: Thu, 17 Jan 2013
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 The Windsor Star
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: Craig Pearson

ALLEGED POLICE AGENT BETRAYED, TRIAL TOLD

Police called him Ziggy and worked with him as a drug agent for 16
years - until cops double-crossed him as retribution for supplying
information that took down fellow officers.

Those were among the explosive allegations defence lawyer Patrick
Ducharme made on the first day of the trial of Ziad Chafchak, 42,
charged with two counts of possession of drugs for the purpose of
trafficking. The case provides a rare glimpse at the murky
police-informant world.

Chafchak was arrested around 4:30 p.m. on May 15, 2008, in the parking
lot of a three-storey apartment building in the 800 block of Louis
Avenue, where police allege he had a stash house for his crack and
cocaine business.

Shortly after he left the building, officers pulled Chafchak out of
his silver BMW, forced him to the ground and handcuffed him. A search
turned up 2.5 grams of cocaine - worth about $75 according to one
officer - in five small baggies, plus a stack of cash.

Officers then searched the apartment they believed Chafchak routinely
visited and found a locked cabinet with a bag of cocaine, two scales,
two spoons and another man's ID, but no fingerprints or forensic
evidence connecting Chafchak to the contraband or apartment rented by
a woman in her 60s.

Windsor police Const. Timothy Kettlewell, the lead officer who
conducted surveillance outside the suspected stash house, testified he
saw Chafchak go in and out several times. He testified an informant
said Chafchak dealt drugs, launching the investigation.

"You knew that he had acted as a police agent for members of the
Windsor Police Service for some 16 years," Ducharme suggested to
Kettlewell. "Not as an agent, as an informant," Kettlewell said. "To
the best of my knowledge, it was only as an informant."

Ducharme explained that informants only provide information, while
agents provide information and conduct drug buys to provide police
with evidence.

Kettlewell agreed with the difference but said he had no knowledge
that Chafchak worked as a police agent. Kettlewell testified that he
was told Chafchak had not worked as an informant for some time, and
that the officer would have stopped the arrest if the accused was
still actively supplying information.

Ducharme said his client was conducting a drug buy for police at the
time.

Ducharme also said that the man whose ID was found with the cocaine in
the apartment was in a van in the parking lot, but that police simply
let him go.

Kettlewell said he knew nothing about that.

Ducharme asked how Chafchak would have the working cellphone numbers
for several members of the drugs, intelligence, guns and surveillance
unit. Kettlewell said he didn't know.

Ducharme also asked if the officer knew that the police Versadex
database lists 86 contacts between police and Chafchak, not a single
one leading to a conviction, and whether the officer found that odd.
Kettlewell said he has seen even more police contacts with other people.

Ducharme asked if the officer knew that Chafchak has had at least 75
traffic tickets waived, and whether that struck the officer as odd.

Kettlewell said he did not know about Chafchak's tickets. Several
times during the day, Ducharme suggested Chafchak had supplied
information that led to investigations that brought down former
Windsor Const. Michael Shannon, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to stealing
$425 from an undercover RCMP officer during a sting operation. Shannon
at the time said he battled a lifelong alcohol and drug addiction.

Ducharme also suggested that Chafchak supplied drugrelated information
that cost former Windsor police Const. John Ryan his job. Ryan became
a bylaw officer in Sudbury but is currently serving nine months in
jail for trying to extort $1,500 from an elderly woman to feed his
addiction to crack cocaine. None of the officers who testified said
they knew anything about Chafchak supplying information related to
Windsor police.

Toronto-based federal prosecutor Clyde Bond asked Sgt. Michael
Ducharme, the ranking officer in the case, why police decided to
arrest Chafchak that day.

The officer said police "believed he was going to be trafficking in
narcotics."

During cross-examination, Patrick Ducharme suggested Sgt. Ducharme
punched Chafchak in the face while he was handcuffed. Sgt. Ducharme
said he did not arrest the accused nor even touch him that day.

Ducharme suggested that Sgt. Ducharme was retaliating for information
Chafchak supplied that led to the arrest and conviction of the
officer's brother on drug charges. Sgt. Ducharme said he had never
heard such a thing. 
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