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Behind The Toronto Police Scandal
Pubdate: Sat, 09 Feb 2008
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2008 The Toronto Star
Contact: http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Nick Pron
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)
BEHIND THE TORONTO POLICE SCANDAL
Years Of Investigation Went Into A Case That, Thanks To Judge's
Ruling, May Never Go To Trial
Dozens of police officers under suspicion. A million pages of
documents. Thousands of interviews. Hundreds of criminal charges.
Easily the worst scandal in Toronto police history.
And then it fell apart.
Charges were stayed because the prosecutors took too long in handing
over the mountain of evidence to the defence.
Lost in Justice Ian Nordheimer's ruling decrying the prosecutors'
"glacial pace" was the evidence itself, collected over a decade of
investigation, including a secret task force that at one point
numbered 31. But the covert investigation into officers on Team 3 of
the Central Field Command drug squad - a six-man unit known as
"Johnny's Boys" headed by Staff Sgt. John Schertzer - was described
in detail by Police Chief Bill Blair in a confidential, 22-page
report to the police services board in 2006.
In it, Blair outlined how investigators found drugs at one officer's
house, along with guns, knives and a ledger that appeared to be a
record of a "slush fund" of personal and business expenses.
There were also allegations that officers had threatened one
potential witness and bribed another, and that some had lied in court
about their investigative techniques.
The investigation into Team 3 began in April 1999, when detectives
from Internal Affairs (now called professional standards) began
looking into complaints from 10 defence lawyers that drug dealers had
been beaten and robbed. The probe ended a year later without charges
because of "insufficient evidence."
But a second investigation got different results.
Four confidential informants - who didn't know one another - told
detectives in separate interviews that they had been promised cash
for tips about drug dealers but were never paid, even though their
signatures for payments were on the logs of a "fink fund." Some
informants were paid, but allegedly with illicit drugs, not cash.
That led to charges of fraud, theft and forgery against Schertzer and
seven others in November 2001. Detectives also laid more than 100
internal Police Act charges.
A decision on whether the force will proceed with the internal
charges against the three officers still working (three have since
resigned) will be delayed until after the appeal of Nordheimer's
ruling is heard, probably next year.
The investigation expanded following an audit of Team 3 in April
2001, when detectives uncovered "a much larger problem than was
originally thought," wrote Blair.
In one heroin trafficking case, the drug squad officers allegedly
"concealed the true role of the (civilian) agent and then lied about
it at the preliminary hearing."
An informant is a person who is paid for tips he or she gives to the
police, while an agent secretly works for the police in gathering
evidence. By law, a civilian working for the police as an agent must
be identified to the prosecution and defence after the charges are laid.
The trafficker, who had been sentenced to 45 months behind bars, was
advised to appeal his conviction. He was eventually granted a new
trial, but prosecutors stayed the charges and the case died.
Investigations the officers had worked on, with Team 3 and other
squads, had to be re-examined. Investigators initially seized 668
files for cases between 1995 and 1999, a number that would later
balloon to 2,100. Every case had to be reviewed for "potential
evidence of wrongdoing."
"It became obvious that the resources dedicated to this task would
have to be increased significantly," wrote Blair.
Three months after the audit was completed, then-chief Julian Fantino
asked the RCMP to lead a major investigation of Team 3. It would have
to be "covert" given the "sensitive" nature of the case, especially
since it targeted an elite unit.
RCMP Supt. John Neily headed the probe. Twenty-six detectives and
five support staff hand-picked for the job set up in a secret office
on Wilson Ave. in North York, far from the prying eyes of colleagues.
The group's preliminary review of Team 3, begun in the fall of 2001,
revealed "an abundance of allegations of criminal conduct" and
"serious breaches of the Police Services Act" including deceit,
discreditable conduct, neglect of duty and insubordination. At the
heart of the investigation was a "criminal conspiracy involving
alleged abuses against the judicial system," including fabricating
evidence, perjury, obstruction of justice and improper warrants.
Other alleged crimes included assault causing bodily harm, theft over
$5,000, trafficking in narcotics, not getting proper search warrants,
threatening death, forcible confinement and breach of trust.
Blair wrote that he was worried about the safety of witnesses.
One Team 3 street-level informant told detectives that a member of
the drug squad had asked him what he had said to the task force,
reminding him that Johnny's Boys "had always been good to him."
That informant later found money outside his door after he talked to
the task force, claiming it was left there by one of the drug squad
officers, wrote Blair. Another informant got a threatening phone call.
"It was suspected at this point that potential witnesses were being
intimidated," concluded Blair.
Early in 2002, the task force ran into another problem.
Defence lawyers were asking for disclosure of the evidence in the
charges involving the fink fund. The prosecutors were faced with a
dilemma. If they handed over the evidence, it was feared the bigger
investigation would be revealed.
So the initial charges laid against Team 3 in November 2000 were
stayed. But the wider investigation continued. The task force
eventually zeroed in on questions about 18 of the squad's investigations.
But proceeding was hard. The secret probe was now common knowledge on
the force. Police union directors called Neily, demanding to know
what was going on. Officers were "antagonistic" and refused to answer
questions.
"This lack of co-operation slowed the investigation," said the chief.
Nonetheless, investigators made some unusual discoveries.
Team 3 member Const. Ned Maodus was arrested on suspicion of domestic
assault following an incident at his home in March 2003.
An OPP search of the house discovered cocaine, heroin, marijuana and
ecstasy tablets. They also found weapons, ammunition - and knives
like those Team 3 had seized.
They also found what appeared to be an account book for a drug squad
"slush fund," wrote Blair. It showed cash withdrawals for food,
entertainment and personal items, along with payouts to informants.
Later, the task force reviewed the finances of the drug squad
officers, checking over 222 of their personal financial accounts. The
accounting firm of Grant Thornton was hired to determine if the
officers "had sufficient legitimate means to accumulate their
possessed real and personal property while continuing to meet other
expenditures."
Detectives pored over bank records, property deeds, investments, even
lottery winnings. Credit histories were scrutinized, as were
retirement plans and credit cards.
A year of probing personal records raised suspicions about two
officers: Schertzer and Const. Joseph Miched. The accounting firm
said it appeared the two had "another source of funds" while on Team 3.
By Dec. 16, 2003, prosecutors had concluded there was a reasonable
prospect of conviction. Three weeks later, on Jan. 7, 2004,
Schertzer, Miched, Maodus and Constables Steven Correia, Raymond
Pollard and Richard Benoit were hit with 40 criminal charges.
After a five-month preliminary hearing, the officers were committed
in May 2006 to stand trial.
The outcome now hangs on whether the appeal of Nordheimer's ruling
eventually succeeds.
*SIDEBAR*
How probe proceeded
1999: Investigation begins into allegations from 10 lawyers that
their clients were being beaten up and robbed by officers from Team 3
of the Central Field Command drug squad.
2001: A 31-member task force is quietly assembled to probe what could
be a bigger problem that first suspected with the elite unit.
2004: Staff Sgt. John Schertzer and five colleagues are charged with
40 counts of corruption ranging from perjury and theft to extortion
and assault, in what is described as the worst scandal ever to hit the force.
2006: Police Chief Bill Blair, left, writes report.
2008: After hearing five months of pre-trial arguments, Justice Ian
Nordheimer stays the charges, ruling the officers aren't getting a
fair trial because prosecutors are moving at "glacial speed" in
disclosing evidence to the defence.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom