A group of Peel Regional police officers "essentially colluded and then committed perjury en masse," in their handling of a drug case that began more than two years ago, a judge has found. Tan-Hung Dinh, now 28, was arrested and charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking after a 2009 sting operation at a Mississauga motel. Police said they found nearly a kilo of cocaine in Mr. Dinh's car and another two kilos when they searched his house. [continues 703 words]
Peel Region Police say they are conducting an internal investigation after a judge's damning words about the "reprehensible" conduct of members of their drug squad. But critics are skeptical anything will be done. "The police lied under oath in order to cover up (an) illegal search and persisted in their lying when confronted with the most damning of evidence. All these misdeeds were calculated, deliberate and utterly avoidable," Superior Court Justice Deena Baltman said Friday in a Brampton courtroom, reading out her reasons for sparing a baby-faced cocaine dealer a prison sentence. [continues 834 words]
ATF's Cartel Suspects Worked for Other Agency Mexican cartel suspects targeted in the troubled gun-trafficking probe known as Operation Fast and Furious were actually working as FBI informants at the time, according to a congressional memo that describes the case's mission as a "failure." The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has acknowledged that guns were allowed into the hands of Mexican criminals for more than a year in the hope of catching "big fish." The memorandum from staffers with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform says the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration were investigating a drug-trafficking organization and had identified cartel associates a year before the ATF even learned who they were. At some point before the ATF's Fast and Furious investigation progressed -- congressional investigators don't know when -- the cartel members became FBI informants. [continues 712 words]
A former senior Crown attorney says he had no idea a marijuana dealer, as part of a plea bargain, had signed a document releasing drug squad officers who allegedly beat him from any liability for his injuries. Kofi Barnes, now a provincial court judge, was the Crown who supervised 10 federal prosecutors at Old City Hall, including Beverley Olesko, who took Christopher Quigley's June 3, 1998, guilty plea. According to an agreed statement of facts read into the record at a police corruption trial Monday the release "was neither shown to nor brought to the attention of Mr. Barnes, Ms. Olesko or any other (Department of Justice) prosecutor." [continues 200 words]
At first he didn't succeed, but trying again led to trouble for a Riverside medical marijuana dispensary operator who police say got a city business license using fake information after his first, more honest attempt was denied. On Tuesday, Riverside police officers in SWAT gear came to Discount Patient Care at 6343 Magnolia Ave. and arrested Jimmie Sutterfield, 29, of Jurupa Valley, and booked him into Robert Presley Detention Center on suspicion of filing false documents in a public office, perjury and burglary, all felony charges. [continues 551 words]
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. [continues 316 words]
A drug dealer was bleeding from his forehead and throwing up blood before he alleged drug squad detectives "beat the s---" out of him, according to a police officer. Christopher Quigley was in a police station cell shortly after 4 a.m. on May 1, 1998, complaining of sore ribs and difficulty breathing, according to notes taken at the time by Const. Marc Lefebvre. According to Lefebvre's memo book, portions of which he read out in court Thursday, he saw a "use of force report" at the station that described Quigley's injuries as simply a "bloody nose." [continues 333 words]
TORONTO - A witness who alleged drug squad officers savagely attacked him in a police station reported to a nurse hours later that the cops had beaten "the s--- out of me," a jury trial heard Thursday. Christopher Quigley, then 32, uttered the statement while a nurse examined him at Sunnybrook hospital, stated a police officer who escorted Quigley from the police station to the hospital shortly after 5 a.m. on May 1, 1998. Toronto Police Const. Marc Lefebvre read his notes in court and admitted he doesn't remember the incident when Quigley divulged the beating. [continues 343 words]
The mother of a one-time marijuana dealer, who claims drug squad officers beat him and stole his money, says she was shocked to see how badly injured he looked hours later. "He was all bent over, shuffling and bent over," testified Greeba Quigley, 75, mother of Christopher Quigley, 46. "His face was completely red," she told a police corruption trial, recalling how her son looked when she bailed him out hours after the alleged assault 14 years ago. "He had a big cut in between his eye and forehead." [continues 380 words]
A one-time marijuana dealer who claims Toronto drug squad officers savagely assaulted him and stole his money denies his testimony is motivated by a $650,000 lawsuit. Defence lawyer Harry Black lawyer suggested Wednesday that Christopher Quigley is hoping that if he "can just persuade this jury" one or more officers beat him up and robbed him, he'll get a "huge amount" of money in a civil suit he has filed. "Absolutely not, I'm just here to tell the truth, sir," Quigley, 46, told the corruption trial of five former drug squad officers. [continues 478 words]
A former pot dealer who claims drug squad detectives "tortured" him over nine hours adamantly denies his injuries were minimal or occurred after he went berserk. In a dramatic and combative exchange with defence lawyer John Rosen, star Crown witness Christopher Quigley angrily fended off suggestions he is exaggerating his injuries because he has an "agenda." "You have your agenda and I have mine," Quigley said at a Toronto police corruption trial. "And that's to tell the truth." Rosen went over hospital records and suggested they don't back up Quigley's claim that in the spring of 1998 he was viciously kicked, punched and choked in a police interview room to the point he thought he was going to die. [continues 315 words]
TORONTO - A part-time pot dealer who alleged police brutalized him was accused of lying about putting money from an insurance settlement into a safety deposit box containing drug proceeds. Defence lawyer John Rosen suggested to witness Christopher Quigley Wednesday that his account of mixing $38,500 in insurance cash with the profits of his pot sales was pure fiction. Rosen suggested Quigley wouldn't have mingled his "legitimate" insurance cash - collected after he lost an expensive ring - with "dirty money," instead of putting it into a bank account where the currency was safe from police seizure. [continues 242 words]
A Dozen Years After Fleeing the Valley, Bill Conde Remains As Pro-Hemp As Ever Editor's note: Today is the first installment in a monthly series that revisits and updates stories we reported on as the 21st century began a dozen years ago. Lots of people around the mid-valley remember William Conde, formerly of Harrisburg, who from 1984 to 2001 was a lumberyard owner, festival promoter, failed candidate for governor and champion of hemp and of legalizing marijuana. The impressions of him, developed before he moved to Central America, remain quite vivid to his former customers, the law enforcement officers who investigated him, the Linn County Board of Commissioners that dealt with him, and the reporters who wrote about him. [continues 1093 words]
A one-time pot dealer who claims Toronto drug squad officers viciously beat and robbed him 14 years ago is a liar who got his mother to stash his ill gotten gains, a defence lawyer suggests. John Rosen attacked the credibility of Christopher Quigley Wednesday, painting him as a former flashy drug dealer who sported $2,500 alligator boots and drove a $34,000 Land Rover. Quigley, 46, testified earlier this week that in the spring of 1998 drug squad officers kicked, punched and choked him to the point of unconsciousness as they demanded the whereabouts of his drugs and money. [continues 350 words]
A former pot dealer who claims he was savagely beaten by Toronto drug squad officers 14 years ago admits he once formally agreed that he started the incident by attacking an officer. But Christopher Quigley, 46, denied at a police corruption trial Friday that everything he admitted to when he pleaded guilty to marijuana possession 14 years ago was true. According to facts read out in court in 1998, Quigley "became enraged and attacked" an officer, striking him in the chest, which became sore and red. [continues 330 words]
TORONTO - A part-time pot dealer testified Tuesday he feared for his life as members of an elite group of Toronto drug squad officers =93pulverized=94 him in an unprovoked beating. I was absolutely terrified. I thought I was going to die,=94 recalled Christopher Quigley, 46, at the trial of five former members of Central Field Command. I still have scar on my forehead from this beating.=94 John Schertzer, 54, Steve Correia, 44, Ned Maodus, 48, Joseph Miched, 53, and Raymond Pollard, 47, collectively face 29 charges =AD laid in January 2004 =AD including obstructing justice, perjury, assault and extortion related to their work between 1997 and 2002. Each has pleaded not guilty to all the charges which are linked to drug investigations. [continues 272 words]
Leaning far back in his chair, the former drug cop stretches his arm along the courtroom railing, drums his fingers, tap-tap-tap. The only way Nebojsa (Ned) Maodus - he of the dark slicked back hair, almost a pompadour quiff - would look more relaxed is if he were to prop his feet up on to the defence counsel's table. Body language can speak volumes. It's cop posture, or posturing. But it is Christopher Quigley doing the talking, having waited some 14 years for the opportunity. [continues 1639 words]
A former pot dealer says he felt pressured, as part of a plea bargain, into signing a document agreeing not to sue two police officers who brutally beat him in custody. Christopher Quigley testified at a cop corruption trial Tuesday that Toronto Central Field Command drug squad officers beat him so severely after they arrested him on April 30, 1998, that he thought he was going to die. "I was terrified," he told an Ontario Superior Court jury. "I was being pulverized." [continues 379 words]
An elite group of Toronto drug squad officers intimidated drug dealers, stole their money and lied in courts to escape "the reach of the law," the Crown alleged Monday. "They engaged in unjustified acts of physical violence against people in their custody," prosecutor John Pearson told a jury in a three-hour opening statement for the long-awaited trial of five former members of the Central Field Command. John Schertzer, 54, Steve Correia, 44, Ned Maodus, 48, Joseph Miched, 53, and Raymond Pollard, 47, collectively face 29 charges - laid in January 2004 - including obstructing justice, perjury, assault and extortion related to their work between 1997 and 2002. [continues 263 words]
