Pubdate: Tue, 05 Feb 2008
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2008 Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Shannon Kari
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)

'GROUNDLESS' TO SAY CROWN DELAY DELIBERATE: A-G

Police Corruption

The Attorney-General of Ontario is rejecting any suggestion that 
senior Crown attorneys intentionally delayed the high-profile 
prosecution of six former Toronto drug squad officers so the case 
would be thrown out.

"That is just simply baseless and groundless," said Chris Bentley 
yesterday after a luncheon speech in Toronto at an Ontario Bar 
Association conference.

"There is a lot of speculation and a lot of commentary. I think we 
need to be careful about the commentary. The case is within the 
review period. We need to let the lawyers look at the issues of 
appeal," the Attorney-General said.

The Liberal government has faced numerous calls for an independent 
inquiry since Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer stayed all 
charges against the six officers on Jan. 31 because of unreasonable 
delay by the Crown.

The officers were facing more than 30 charges in what the lead 
investigator of the special task force that probed the now disbanded 
drug squad described in 2003 as "the largest police corruption 
scandal known in Canadian history."

Their trial was not scheduled to start until this month, more than 
four years after they were charged, because of what the judge said 
were repeated failures by the Crown to meet its obligation to 
disclose all relevant evidence to the defendants.

The prosecution did not "place any evidence before the court by way 
of explanation for what is presumptively inordinate delay," said 
Judge Nordheimer in his ruling.

While Mr. Bentley stressed it would be improper to allege the delay 
was intentional, he declined to provide any explanation for what went wrong.

"Obviously the result is troubling in this case," he said. He 
declined to talk about "the specifics" of the prosecution because 
lawyers in the Crown Law Office of the Ministry are "working around 
the clock" to decide whether to appeal.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom