Pubdate: Mon, 25 Aug 2008
Source: Law Times (CN ON)
Copyright: CLB Media 2008
Contact:  http://www.lawtimesnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3095
Author: Robert Todd

TORONTO LAWYER ACQUITTED OF DRUG CHARGES

Veteran defence lawyer Edmund Schofield is free of drug trafficking 
charges after a federal prosecutor chose not to present evidence at 
the 74-year-old former FBI agent's trial.

Edmund Schofield has been cleared of Don Jail drug charges."I think 
it's essentially being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the 
lady guard misinterpreting what happened," Schofield responded when 
asked how he - a highly respected lawyer of 40 years with an 
impeccable reputation - ended up facing accusations of smuggling 
drugs to an inmate at Toronto's Don Jail.

"Absolutely everybody was shocked. It was shock and disbelief," 
Brenda Lawson, Schofield's lawyer, tells Law Times in describing the 
reaction to the charges. "Having had an unblemished career, to have 
these allegations that he was trafficking in marijuana and cocaine - 
no one believed it to be true."

Schofield was arrested on March 27, 2007 after meeting the prisoner. 
A guard saw the inmate adjusting his pants during their discussion.

The likable lawyer spent the night in jail before being released the 
next morning on $10,000 bail from friend and lawyer David O'Connor.

"It was horrible," Schofield, who was an FBI agent from 1960 to 1966 
and Ontario prosecutor in the late 1960s, tells Law Times in an 
interview. "If that's the way they treat prisoners, it's totally 
wrong - on a cast iron bed with no blankets, no pillows. You're 
sitting there freezing and just stressed out of your mind. It was my 
worst night in 74 years."

He adds that the security guards at Old City Hall, where his bail 
hearing was held, "couldn't have been nicer to me."

Schofield was cleared of the two trafficking charges when Ottawa 
prosecutor Luc Boucher told Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell 
the Crown would not show evidence at the trial.

"It's good to have it over," a visibly relieved Schofield told the judge.

Boucher said outside court there was no reasonable prospect of 
conviction after the evidence presented at a preliminary inquiry.

One of Schofield's four daughters, Toronto psychiatrist Sally 
Schofield, says she believes there was contradictory testimony at the 
preliminary inquiry.

Her father says the inmate testified he already had the drugs on him 
prior to their meeting. In fact, at the prelim the prisoner showed 
the judge how he was able to conceal drugs in his shorts during strip 
searches; he dropped his pants to reveal how he had managed to 
smuggle wadded papers inside a sock pouch in his underwear into court 
that day, despite two searches.

Boucher says he's not aware of any investigation into the guards who 
testified at the preliminary inquiry. Carol Schofield, Edmund's wife 
of 49 years, suggests the Don Jail be retrofitted to prevent a 
similar incident. She says a pane of glass should separate lawyers 
from prisoners during interviews.

She says she was "very relieved that this is all over." But not 
without "a few issues," including that it took "17 months for this 
thing to be resolved." She adds: "Maybe someone should do a big 
investigation of how drugs are getting into the Don Jail . . . Ed is 
the last person in the world who would ever take them in.

"I couldn't believe it," she says of when she heard of the charges 
right after she'd had hip replacement surgery. "I thought it had to 
be a mistake."

In an interesting twist, Schofield was represented on the case by 
Lawson, his former legal assistant/law clerk. Lawson worked for him 
from 1983 to 1986, during which time she did everything from his 
typing and billings to appearing in court to set trial dates.

Lawson moved on to work as O'Connor's law clerk, where she decided 
she wanted to become a lawyer. But being a single mother, she had to 
put her dream on hold.

Years later she began preparing for law school, and eventually got 
into Osgoode Hall Law School as a mature student in 2004 at age 48.

It was only the second time she had worn her gown when Lawson - 
called to the bar in June and now a law partner and wife of O'Connor 
- - appeared in court to represent Schofield.

Lawson says it was rewarding to be able to help her former boss, whom 
she describes as someone who would do the same thing for anyone else.

"He's just phenomenal. He'd give anybody the shirt off his back. He's 
very kind and thoughtful," says Lawson of Schofield.

She notes that O'Connor, who represented Schofield at the prelim, 
after a new surety stepped forward so that he could act in the case, 
asked one of the guards if he'd had any prior contact with the accused.

"He said, 'Yes, as a matter of fact I had,'" she recalls. The witness 
went on to tell a story of how at one time he was guarding a 
hospitalized inmate represented by Schofield, who would visit the 
prisoner and bring him lunch and coffee.

"That's just the kind of guy he is," says Lawson.

Schofield says he has received support throughout the ordeal from 
people in all walks of the justice system. He says he got hugs and 
kind words from defence lawyers, prosecutors, justices of the peace, 
and court clerks after news of his acquittal circulated.

"It's one way to find out who your friends are," says Schofield. "And 
they're all over the lot . . . Everybody that's in the business has 
been totally supportive."

Lawyers Edward and Brian Greenspan, who happened to be at the 361 
University Ave. courthouse on an unrelated matter across the hall, 
shook hands with Schofield and congratulated him. The brothers said 
they offered themselves as character witnesses as soon as they heard 
of the charges.

Moments after the acquittal, Brian Greenspan called Schofield "a fine 
lawyer . . . and person of real integrity." Edward Greenspan agreed 
wholeheartedly, adding that as for visiting the Don Jail, if lawyers 
are "able to go in with more than one person you try to."

Lawyer Michael O'Neail, who was asked by Schofield to call his 
daughter on the night of the arrest, also attended court to support his friend.

"They couldn't have picked a worse guy as far as getting a conviction 
because his reputation is impeccable," says O'Neail. "There was no 
doubt whatsoever of his innocence."

Schofield, who spent the morning of his acquittal running between 
three courthouses to represent clients, planned to celebrate later 
that day with a vodka and tonic - after spending the afternoon in 
court representing another client.

When asked if he'll go into the Don Jail again, Schofield pauses: 
"Probably not," he says.

- - With files from Gretchen Drummie
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart