'THERE WAS A LOT OF DOUBT IN THIS CASE' The 15-year legal saga of five former Toronto drug squad officers reached its conclusion Wednesday, as a Superior Court jury acquitted all five on the most serious charges they faced, including counts of conspiracy, assault, extortion and theft. But the former officers left the downtown courthouse grim-faced after being found guilty on a narrow subset of charges related to a warrantless search. The jury deliberated for nine days on the fates of John Schertzer, Steven Correia, Nebojsa Maodus, Joseph Miched and Raymond Pollard, who were accused of a wide-ranging "conspiracy of silence" aimed at concealing robberies and assaults on local drug dealers. [continues 632 words]
Four of five former drug squad officers on trial in the city's largest cop corruption case were previously charged with defrauding the Toronto police force. For the sake of trial fairness, however, references to these so-called "Fink Fund" allegations were not heard by a jury that began deliberations Tuesday. Raymond Pollard, 48, Joseph Miched, 53, Steven Correia, 45, Ned Maodus, 49, and their former boss, John Schertzer, 54, are variously charged with conspiracy to attempt to obstruct justice, perjury, extortion, theft and assault. [continues 594 words]
The word of a senior Toronto drug squad officer is being pitted against a former member at a cop corruption trial. Earl Levy, lawyer for former Central Field Command drug squad officer Raymond Pollard, suggested Friday that a detective sergeant lied when he gave evidence damaging to his client in March. "How can you be sure that Ray Fortin has been telling the truth?" Levy asked a Ontario Superior Court jury in his final arguments. [continues 418 words]
War On Drugs Or On Minority Communities? Alan Bean couldn't miss the headline splashed across the top of his hometown paper one summer morning in 1999. It spoke of big news for the 5,000-person burg in West Texas: a big drug bust that landed a sizable portion of the town's black community behind bars. "Tulia streets cleared of garbage," the banner headline read. Like many aspects of the American war on drugs, the wording smacked of insidious racism. [continues 1291 words]
A Toronto police officer accused of corruption says marijuana dealer Christopher Quigley was never, as he claims, kicked, punched and choked to unconsciousness by drug squad members 14 years ago. "I heard him say that, but it never happened," Const. Steven Correia, 45, testified Tuesday in his defence. Quigley took the stand in January to say two other officers, Ned Maodus and Richard Benoit, viciously assaulted him in a drug squad interview room, demanding to know where his marijuana and money were. [continues 372 words]
The man who led a team of Toronto drug squad officers accused of corruption says he ignored police directives when he believed they were illegal or unrealistic. "You're not worried about dotting an 'i' and crossing a 't' when you're kicking in a door and there are guns drawn at you," John Schertzer said in his second day of cross-examination Friday. The 54-year-old retired detective was responding to a question by prosecutor John Pearson about why he did not ensure one of his officers noted in his memo book the names of the occupants served with a search warrant in a Scarborough apartment they searched in 1998. [continues 324 words]
John Schertzer, the man who led a small group of drug squad detectives accused of theft, extortion and attempting to obstruct justice, took the witness stand at his trial Monday to deny all the charges against him. It was the first time the former detective has spoken in detail about the charges he and four former fellow officers have faced for eight years. Schertzer headed Central Field Command drug squad, which investigated street- and mid-level narcotics dealing in Toronto's core. [continues 278 words]
After more than three months, the Crown has closed its case in the Toronto drug squad corruption trial. Prosecutor Milan Rupic told an Ontario Superior Court jury Wednesday that he and his three co-counsel would be calling no further evidence. Jurors have heard from 25 witnesses in a trial that began Jan. 16. Rupic also said that "in light of the available evidence," the Crown will no longer be proceeding with four of 14 counts, including perjury. John Schertzer, 54; Raymond Pollard, 48; Joseph Miched, 53; Steven Correia, 45; and Ned Maodus, 49, still face various charges, laid in 2004, including attempting to obstruct justice, assault and extortion between 1997 and 2002. [continues 148 words]
Visibly nervous, papers shaking in their hands, Toronto police officers Jay Shin and Joseph Tremblay testified under oath that they stopped Delroy Mattison's Chrysler Intrepid on the afternoon of July 18, 2011, because they saw him using a cellphone. The officers were lying, just not very well. In Mattison's trunk that summer day were a stainless steel .357 Smith & Wesson revolver and 31 bullets. Mattison, who had a previous conviction for armed robbery, was on his way to a drug deal. Under the law, these officers needed a reason to stop and detain Mattison. Without one, they would never have found the gun. [continues 2022 words]
A lie is an interesting concept. To lie is to hold something which one knows is not the whole truth to be the whole truth, intentionally. In some situations, including perjury and some fraud, lying may be punishable by law. Measure A on Butte County's June ballot is a lie. The measure hardly tells the whole truth about the intentions. The writers of this law failed to research and inform the county of possible civil and criminal law suits and increases to the county's budget. [continues 156 words]
Investigators searching the home of a Toronto drug squad officer suspected of malfeasance found 17 police memo notebooks he had been ordered by the police chief to hand over, a cop corruption trial has been told. On March 22, 2002, special task force officers searched the home of Const. Ned Maodus and found a total of 67 police notebooks in his basement, according to an agreed statement of facts from retired Toronto Det.-Sgt. Alyn Scott, which a prosecutor read into the record Wednesday. [continues 283 words]
One of the leading investigators into alleged Toronto drug squad corruption has come under fire for not interrogating a key witness about her shady past. Defence lawyers for two of five former Central Field Command officers grilled retired RCMP inspector Peter Goulet Friday, implying he failed to ask former Montreal stripper Aida Fagundo enough tough questions. "There can be miscarriages of justice, can't there?" said defence lawyer Harry Black, suggesting they can occur if police don't probe the background or motives of a witness. [continues 251 words]
On Jan. 17, Circuit Judge Joe Will dropped drug charges against David Beauprez of Daytona Beach. The ruling came after officers testified that they had told Beauprez's mother that someone had called 911 from her home. In fact, the police were acting on an anonymous tip that there were drugs in the house. Once inside, officers testified, the mother consented to a search -- but the woman said that the police did not ask permission before they opened a drawer in which drugs and paraphernalia were found. Will found that because officers used deception to gain entry, they were not credible. [continues 1900 words]
A former drug squad member on trial for corruption once told another detective his crew seized a pound of cocaine from a dealer's house, more than six times what they reported in police documents, a trial has heard. Det.-Sgt. Ray Fortin testified Thursday that in November 1999 he happened to run into Const. Raymond Pollard who told him about Andy Ioakim, a drug dealer his squad had arrested in 1997. . Fortin said Pollard told him that he and other Central Field Command drug squad officers seized a pound (16 ounces) of cocaine, which is worth about $20,000 wholesale, from his Richmond Hill home. [continues 263 words]
A cocaine dealer who claims Toronto detectives shook him down for drugs and money has given widely inconsistent statements, and now alleges an officer stared at private pictures of his naked wife, a trial has heard. Andy Ioakim, 55, has testified at this police corruption trial that officers stole cocaine, marijuana and more than $100,000 from his Richmond Hill home in 1997, promising he would avoid jail if he fed their greed. On Thursday, Ioakim added the nude photos allegation. "Drugs, money and naked pictures go together well," Ioakim said. [continues 243 words]
As Canadian senators meet this week to vote on comprehensive anti-crime Bill C-10, they need to reflect upon the U.S. experience and reject the bill's entrenchment of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences in Canada. As has been the case in the U.S., mandatory minimums can easily go wrong in Canada, too, in ways entirely predictable. Exploding court and correctional costs for resource-strapped national and provincial governments is one likely calamity that Canadians can expect from mandatory minimum sentencing laws. [continues 725 words]
Admitted drug trafficker Curtis Keller walked into Criminal Court for sentencing Tuesday, shielding himself from cameras with a sheet of paper on which he had printed: "Massive Corruption Within the Courts." Things went downhill from there. Keller, in bright red jail garb and escorted by two jail officers, was convicted last fall of directing a 2010 home invasion in Collierville, a scheme he acknowledged planning in an effort to get his marijuana back. Kicking in a door in the middle of the night, threatening a woman and children with guns and pistol-whipping the man at the house, however, was the crowning achievement in a lifetime of crime, the judge said. [continues 490 words]
A large-scale cocaine dealer who claims Toronto drug squad officers stole his "dope" and money denies he always accuses police of misconduct whenever he is under investigation. "Whenever you deal with police, when they investigate you, or when they arrest you or they charge you, what happens is you make up allegations against them, correct?" defence lawyer Peter Brauti suggested Wednesday, while cross-examining Andy Ioakim, 55, at a police corruption trial. "You are wrong," the bushy-bearded witness replied. [continues 289 words]
A former stripper who says her English was too poor to complain about Toronto drug squad officers beating and robbing her 14 years ago is seen on a booking video interpreting the language for a friend. Aida Fagundo, 48, alleges drug squad officers beat her arms, legs and buttocks with a telephone book hours earlier at north Toronto's 53 Division after she was arrested for possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking in 1997. She also claims she heard her female co-accused, Maria Sanchez-Moreno, crying out and begging officers to stop beating her in a nearby room. [continues 333 words]
A building superintendent says she was astounded by the mess Toronto drug squad officers made when they searched a tenant's apartment, allegedly before a warrant was issued. "I could not believe my eyes," Ann Barnes, 73, testified Wednesday at a police corruption trial. "I was mesmerized by the mess." Furniture was upturned and ripped, dishes were strewn about the floor, drawers pulled out and doors were knocked off, Barnes told prosecutor Milan Rupic. "Everything was thrown all over the place," she said. "You couldn't walk." [continues 344 words]
