Pubdate: Thu, 27 Nov 2008
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2008 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Bob Mitchell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/sheldon+cook

DETECTIVE'S RETURN TO SCENE A SURPRISE

Second Appearance At Drug Bust Shocked Officer, Court
Told

A Peel morality officer was surprised when a detective from another
unit suddenly appeared at his Jeep Cherokee about two hours after he
thought he had left the scene of what police believed was a major
cocaine discovery.

Det. Kennedy McTiernan said he was in a morality-assigned Jeep near
Peel's Lakeshore Rd. community station when Det. Marty Rykhoff of 12
Division's Criminal Investigation Bureau appeared at about 2 a.m. on
Nov. 17, 2005.

"He appeared to be surprised we were still there," McTiernan told a
Brampton court yesterday at the trial of Peel Const. Sheldon Cook, who
is accused of stealing some of the suspected drugs that were part of
an RCMP sting operation.

Rykhoff and other members of the investigation unit had been at the
scene earlier in the evening before McTiernan's morality officers took
over.

"I thought he cleared with the other CIB officers," McTiernan
said.

Cook, a member of Rykhoff's team, is accused of stealing 15 bricks of
the 102 packages of suspected cocaine discovered hidden inside boxes
of mangoes in a courier delivery truck on Nov. 16, 2005.

The significance, if any, of Rykhoff's unexpected appearance has yet
to be revealed in Cook's trial in Brampton.

But during a voir dire hearing earlier yesterday in this judge-only
trial, Rykhoff insisted under cross-examination by defence lawyer Pat
Ducharme that he never returned to the scene. Cook, one of several
officers who handled the bricks earlier that night, has pleaded not
guilty to seven criminal offences.

Two days after the discovery, a GPS tracking device hidden in the
dummy packages led RCMP investigators to Cook's Cambridge home. The
dummy drugs were found in a storage compartment of a Sea-Doo in his
garage. A search warrant uncovered marijuana and several MP3 players
allegedly taken from an unrelated investigation.

McTiernan said he was stunned when an inspector told him about Cook's
arrest on Nov. 18.

Federal prosecutors David Rowcliffe and Ania Weiler contend Cook
believed the cocaine was real when he removed the bricks during his
involvement as part of the first crew of officers on the scene.
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