Pubdate: Thu, 08 Jan 2004
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2004 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: James McCarten, Canadian Press

SIX OFFICERS FACING CHARGES IN TORONTO

Allegedly Forged Notes, Records

TORONTO (CP) -- Six longtime veterans of Canada's largest urban police 
force were hit yesterday with a battery of criminal charges after a 
two-year probe into allegations of corruption, deceit and brutality among 
members of the city's drug squad.

Between July 1995 and March 2002, the officers allegedly forged notes and 
police records, gave false testimony and affidavits to obtain search 
warrants and failed to account for seized evidence, said RCMP Chief Supt. 
John Neily, head of a special Toronto police task force probing the squad.

"The special task force further alleges that the accused ..deliberately 
betrayed the trust of some of those in the justice system, thereby 
victimizing the entire justice system, those who serve in it, and the 
public," Neily told a packed news conference at Toronto police headquarters.

"Police officers are not above the law. It never has been and never will be 
acceptable for police to engage in criminal activity or take the law into 
their own hands. There is no excuse."

All told, the officers, who between them share a collective 113 years of 
service with Toronto police, face 40 individual charges, including perjury, 
theft, extortion and assault causing bodily harm.

All six also face charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, and five are 
facing multiple counts of attempt to obstruct justice. Four other officers 
have been named as "unindicted co-conspirators," Neily said. The charges, 
the culmination of a controversy that has swirled over the drug squad for 
more than four years, left Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino pleading 
with the public to keep the faith.

Fantino said he was "saddened and disappointed" by the charges but called 
the charges "isolated" and said they're not reflective of any general 
corruption on the Toronto force.

"Police officers everywhere strive for truth, duty and honour in whatever 
they do," he said. "However, we are similarly committed to confronting our 
failures and our weaknesses."

Indeed, he added, the charges should stand as proof of that and serve to 
reassure the residents of Canada's most populous city that their police 
force can still be trusted to uphold the law.

"In all of this, we must maintain our faith in the system. I do today, as I 
have always done in the past."

The six officers were scheduled to appear in court yesterday. Earlier in 
the day, police union lawyer Gary Clewley said the allegations are "nothing 
more at this point," adding, "there isn't a lick of proof."

But whispers of corruption have plagued Toronto's central drug squad since 
1999, when allegations first surfaced that officers were stealing from the 
so-called "fink fund" used to pay off informants.

A smaller internal investigation not related to Neily's probe led to an 
array of charges being laid in the fall of 2000, most of which were dropped 
or stayed early last year.
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