Pubdate: Fri, 11 May 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
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)

Police Corruption Trial

DRUG DEALER ATTACKED AND 'THE FIGHT WAS ON,' WITNESS TESTIFIES

A former Toronto drug squad officer has told a cop corruption trial 
he never viciously beat a prisoner, as alleged, but simply defended 
himself in a "brawl."

Richard Benoit testified Friday he was ordered to enter a Central 
Field Command drug squad interview room in 1998 to inform pot dealer 
Christopher Quigley that officers had searched his mother's house.

This enraged the prisoner, Benoit said.

"He started yelling. He lunged at me with a closed fist," Benoit told 
Patrick Ducharme, lawyer for defendant Ned Maodus. "He attempted to punch me."

Benoit said he stepped back, but the punch hit his chest, knocking 
him off balance.

Then Quigley made a wrestling move that brought Benoit to the ground. 
The pot dealer lay on top of the officer while the two grappled, he said.

"The fight was on," Benoit testified.

Benoit managed to get back on his feet. The two swung at each other 
and "I landed a couple of good punches," he testified.

Then he swept Quigley's feet from under him, making the prisoner land 
on his back, he said. He said he rolled him onto his stomach, and 
managed to handcuff him, assisted by Maodus and another officer, who 
rushed in to help.

"That sounds like a bit of a brawl," said prosecutor John Pearson. 
Benoit agreed.

Pearson suggested Quigley was brutally beaten to find out where he 
kept his "nest egg."

"Completely false," Benoit replied.

Quigley, 46, testified in January that on the night of April 30, 
1998, Det. John Schertzer slapped his face, then Benoit and Maodus 
kicked, punched and choked him on several occasions as they demanded 
where he kept his drugs and money.

Benoit denied this. He said that as Quigley was being led away, he 
looked at the officer and said, of the fight, "that was good."

Schertzer, 54, Maodus, 49, Raymond Pollard, 48, Steven Correia, 45 
and Joseph Miched, 53, are charged with conspiracy to attempt to 
obstruct justice, theft, assault and extortion between 1997 and 2002.

Benoit said he was also charged with assault causing bodily harm, 
conspiracy to attempt to obstruct justice and extortion in the case, 
but the charges were stayed.

Miched took the stand in his defence Friday and denied falsifying 
police records, misleading prosecutors, abusing a female prisoner and 
all other charges against him.

He told his lawyer, Peter Brauti, that cocaine dealer Andy Ioakim's 
claim that officers stole his drugs and money and bullied him into 
setting up a big cocaine deal is completely false.

He said the drug squad supervisor and Ioakim's lawyer were fully 
apprised of the arrangement with Ioakim, who agreed to be a 
confidential informant.

The Ontario Superior Court trial continues Monday.
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