Pubdate: Tue, 30 Dec 2003
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.canoe.com/NewsStand/TorontoSun/home.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Alan Cairns

DRUG COPS TO FACE CHARGES

Corruption Probe In 'Final Phase'

Charges are imminent against an unspecified number of former Toronto Police 
drug squad officers accused of criminal conduct, court documents reveal. In 
an affidavit filed last week in an Ontario Court of Appeal case that freed 
alleged drug dealer Kai Sum (Simon) Yeung 30 months ago, RCMP Chief Supt. 
John Neily asked that court records in the Yeung case be sealed for another 
month or "upon the laying of criminal charges."

Neily, who heads a 25-member Toronto Police internal affairs task force 
probing allegations of corruption in the now-disbanded drug squad, said his 
probe has reached its "final phase."

SEALING ORDER

Neily wrote that the temporary extension would "protect a vulnerable 
witness and preserve the integrity of the criminal investigation ... 
pending the laying of criminal charges."

Sources say that as many as a dozen officers will be charged under the 
Criminal Code and Police Services Act within weeks.

Neily's affidavit supported an application by the attorney general to get a 
seventh consecutive sealing order in the Yeung case.

The latest seal was to expire today but appeal court judges extended it 
through Jan. 30, 2004, as Neily requested.

DRUGS STOLEN

Yeung is one of numerous complainants who allege drugs, cash and valuables 
were stolen during police raids in the mid and late 1990s.

Yeung was released from Collins Bay prison in July 2001 after serving 18 
months of a 45-month sentence for drug offences.

After his release, Yeung sued two drug squad officers for $2.7-million, 
claiming they investigated him in a "high-handed, arbitrary and malicious 
manner."

The City of Toronto settled the suit without any admission of wrongdoing.

In the affidavit, Neily wrote that he was concerned that the task force's 
intentions not be "advertised in advance of the laying of charges ... laid 
against whom, or precisely when that will occur."

Neily's description of charges, which he laid out "in general terms," were 
edited from the public record by the appeal court.
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