Pubdate: Fri, 15 May 2009 Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON) Copyright: 2009 The Hamilton Spectator Contact: http://www.thespec.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/181 Author: Susan Clairmont Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.) FROM TOP COP ... TO $20,000 BAIL It was the inspector's final e-mail to the Hamilton Police Service. Sent out, department wide, last August. Then, almost as soon as it arrived in hundreds of in-boxes, it was cleared off the system by administration. "To All HPS Staff: "During my rewarding 35 years in policing I have met a wide variety of people, many of whom I consider my friends. I have chosen to retire and I want to thank those I have had the pleasure of serving with. I am proud of my contributions to our community during my career. "Policing requires honour, integrity and a spirit of helping others. It's important that all of us, at all levels, remember that. "I am excited about my new career in teaching where I can share my life experiences and pass on ethics, values and integrity to the next generation of policing. "Wishing you all well in the future!! "Rick Wills." Three months later, Chief Brian Mullan asked the OPP to investigate Wills. On Wednesday, Wills was arrested on 47 fraud-related charges. He spent the night in jail and appeared in court yesterday afternoon, where he was let out on $20,000 bail. Wills, 54, was one of the city's highest-ranking and highest profile police officers, handling some of the service's most sensitive and secretive investigations. For years as a drug officer, he chased after Hamilton's notorious Gravelle crime family. In 1988, he was involved in a joint operation with the RCMP in targeting the family. No charges came out of it. But Wills continued to keep tabs on the family for another three years until Andre and his brother Paul were busted in Florida for importing hash oil. Both were convicted. A year before the bust, according to court documents filed in a later bail hearing for Andre, the vice and drugs unit allegedly received information that Andre had put a hit out on Wills' life and the contract had been accepted by Ion Croitoru -- a.k.a. Johnny K-9. Wills would later testify he took precautions for himself and his family, but eventually the situation "cooled off" after another officer spoke to Andre. (In granting Andre bail, Justice Donald Gordon would say he had doubts about the likelihood of a hit on Wills.) Wills continued to keep tabs on the Gravelles until 1999, according to the bail hearing documents. In 2005, Andre and Johnny K-9 were both arrested for the 1999 shotgun murders of criminal lawyer Lynn Gilbank and her husband Fred. But just before the case went to trial, the Crown withdrew the charges, saying there was no reasonable chance of conviction. Ten years after their deaths, the Gilbanks murders remain unsolved. By the mid 1990s, Wills was the Hamilton police biker expert, investigating Satan's Choice, the Red Devils and Hells Angels. In 1998, he was a detective in the major fraud branch, unravelling elaborate schemes to bilk people and organizations out of their money. Wills went back into vice and drugs in 1999, this time as a sergeant heading up the unit. While there, he arrested Andre Gravelle again in a $4 million pot bust. Charges were later withdrawn against Andre. Wills went on to arrest Paul Gravelle for conspiring to smuggle nearly $1 million worth of hash oil into Hamilton. Paul received a conditional sentence. He also arrested David Helson, one-time head of the Hamilton Criminal Lawyers' Association, for smuggling drugs into the Barton Street jail. Helson was acquitted after a three-day trial. At the time of Helson's arrest, Wills told The Spectator the case was disappointing because it involved allegations against someone expected to be a trusted officer of the court. By 2004, Wills was promoted to inspector and worked in the Investigative Services Division, overseeing vice and drugs, major crime, the child abuse branch, major fraud and the intelligence unit. He and other members of vice and drugs were presented with an award that year for their efforts to use a multi-agency task force to shut down crack houses. When four Mounties were murdered in a drug raid in Mayerthorpe, Alberta, in 2005, Wills asked, and was given permission, to represent Hamilton police at the memorial service. In the summer of 2007, he wore his police dress uniform when he, his wife Doreen, their son and daughter-in-law had tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. The impressive mess kit caught the eye of Prince Philip, who asked Wills about his uniform. Prince Charles quipped that with Wills at the garden party, Hamilton's criminals must be running amok. Last June, Wills was moved out of ISD and into the court branch. He was there only a short time before retiring. After that, he taught briefly in the police program at Mohawk College. In his personal life, Wills has been an active Rotary member, doing volunteer work at Hess Street School. He's also an avid golfer and member of the Beverly Golf and Country Club. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom