Pubdate: Sun, 24 Jul 2005
Source: Vaughan Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005 Vaughan Citizen.
Contact:  http://www.yorkregion.com/yr/newscentre/vaughancitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2432
Author: Martin Derbyshire, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)

CASE COULD LEAD TO APPEALS: LAWYER

News two York drug officers were disciplined for making up notes on a case 
months after a big investigation could lead to a flood of appeals.

Stephen Brown, the York Region representative of the Criminal Lawyers 
Association, is not asking the Attorney General's office to review every 
one of the officers' old cases.

But local defence lawyers with clients convicted on evidence primarily 
gathered by the two officers will be taking a close look at those cases as 
it could give them grounds to appeal, he said.

"When somebody goes to the length they did to create notes well after the 
investigation, you have to question whether it's an isolated incident or a 
common practice," he said. "There could potentially be the same problem in 
any of the other convictions where evidence gathered by these two officers 
played a central role."

Mr. Brown expects word to travel quickly in the legal community.

"Defence lawyers certainly pay attention to this kind of thing," he said.

However, York Regional Police Chief Armand La Barge said it's unlikely 
there will be a large number of appeals, considering defence lawyers would 
have already had a chance to examine all the officers' notes during any 
previous trials.

"If there were issues with the notes in these other cases, one would assume 
defence counsel would have brought them forward at that time," he said.

And if it is the officers' credibility defense lawyers want to bring in to 
question, he reminds them the two were never criminally charged.

Four men were arrested and $100,000 worth of drugs were seized after an 
eight-month joint-forces drug investigation in 2001 involving officers from 
Toronto police, OPP, RCMP and York.

But the charges were dropped in 2003 after it was discovered notes 
belonging to one of the York officers had been written several months after 
the investigation ended.

A subsequent Toronto police investigation concluded there were no grounds 
for criminal charges, but two officers from the York drug squad, Det.-Sgt. 
Robert Cullen and Det.-Const. Frank Doto, were brought up on disciplinary 
charges.

Both were charged with neglect of duty in July 2004 and pleaded guilty.

Sgt. Cullen was docked 140 hours pay and Det.-Const. Doto docked 96 hours 
pay at a sentencing hearing in February.

The two officers were transferred from the drug squad and are now assigned 
to uniform patrol.

But even in their new roles, Mr. Brown said evidence they bring to future 
trials could be called into question.

"I would expect any defence lawyer to bring up the officers' disciplinary 
record under cross examination," he said. "This may have been an isolated 
incident. We can't say there is an ongoing pattern. Just because it 
happened on one occasion doesn't mean it's done by these officers every 
time, but the questions will be asked."

However, Chief La Barge said it's unlikely anyone will find inconsistencies 
with any of his officers' notes in the future, considering the force's new 
policy on notebooks, put in place following this incident.

"I can tell you we have one of the most stringent notebook procedures in 
Canada," Chief La Barge said.

These days, every officer must hand over his notes at the end of a shift 
for inspection and be signed off by a superior officer.

"This is a situation, as an organization, which we've learned from. It was 
a negative experience, but we never lose the lesson," Chief La Barge said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom