Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2012 The Toronto Star Contact: http://www.thestar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456 Author: Peter Small ALLEGED POLICE BEATING VICTIM WAS A FLASHY DRUG DEALER, DEFENCE SUGGESTS A one-time pot dealer who claims Toronto drug squad officers viciously beat and robbed him 14 years ago is a liar who got his mother to stash his ill gotten gains, a defence lawyer suggests. John Rosen attacked the credibility of Christopher Quigley Wednesday, painting him as a former flashy drug dealer who sported $2,500 alligator boots and drove a $34,000 Land Rover. Quigley, 46, testified earlier this week that in the spring of 1998 drug squad officers kicked, punched and choked him to the point of unconsciousness as they demanded the whereabouts of his drugs and money. He said they ransacked his Eglinton Ave. W. apartment, stealing his boots and an $8,000 sapphire, and later seized $54,000 in cash he kept in his mother's bank safety deposit box, returning only $22,850. The bulk of the cash they stole was from a $38,500 insurance payment he received for the loss of a ring, he said. "That story about the $38,000 cheque being cashed is as false as the rest of your story," suggested Rosen, lawyer for former drug squad detective John Schertzer. Rosen suggested there was much less in the safety deposit box than the $54,000 claimed. Quigley enlisted his mother, then 61, to write a phony note to authenticate that amount, Rosen suggested. "You got your mother to hide your drug money for you, isn't that right?" Rosen asked. Quigley denied it. Quigley is the first Crown witness to testify at the trial of Schertzer, 54, Ned Maodus, 48, Steve Correia, 44, Joseph Miched, 53, and Raymond Pollard, 47. The former Toronto drug squad officers collectively face 29 charges, laid in January 2004, including obstruction of justice, perjury, assault and extortion related to their work between 1997 and 2002. Rosen suggested Quigley was a large scale pot dealer when police arrested him in April 1998. But Quigley insisted he sold to a small group of friends for a modest profit and that it was only a minor part of his income. He mainly traded in jewelry and stocks, he said. Rosen suggested Quigley had a troubled youth, and as a teenager kept prohibited martial arts and other weapons like nunchuks, brass knuckles, and a police style baton in his apartment. "They were not mine," Quigley insisted. He agreed that in 1984 he was convicted of theft under $5,000 and possessing stolen property. In 1996, on two occasions he gave a police officer at Wasaga Beach a fake name when caught speeding on his jet ski, Quigley agreed. For this, he was later convicted of obstructing a peace officer. The defence cross-examination continues Thursday. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt