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Beleaguered Drug Cop Sued Again
Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jul 2005
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2005 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Shannon Kari, CanWest News Service
BELEAGUERED DRUG COP SUED AGAIN
$2.4-Million Suit For Assault. Six Colleagues In Squad Charged With
40-Corruption Related Offences
A Toronto officer charged with assaulting a suspect in custody last year is
a defendant in a $2.4-million lawsuit which accuses him of "abuse of power."
Detective Christopher Higgins is also named in two other lawsuits, one of
which was settled out of court in 2002, which allege officers in a drug
squad beat and robbed suspects during raids.
Higgins, a 14-year veteran, is also scheduled to stand trial in September
on charges of assault causing bodily harm in connection with a March 2004
incident. He remains on active duty in the drug squad.
The most recent lawsuit that names Higgins, 35, as a defendant involves the
detective's actions in the investigation of a man assaulted by Higgins's
colleague.
The suit was filed last month in Ontario Superior Court by Devon Murray, a
45-year-old printer who was charged with assaulting Constable William
Walker during a July 2002 altercation in Toronto's west end.
Murray, who suffered a broken cheekbone in the incident, claimed he was
stopped and arrested because he is black.
The charges against Murray were dropped in September 2003. Walker was
charged with assault causing bodily harm eight months earlier, after an
investigation by the province's Special Investigations Unit.
Walker was convicted of the charge last fall and received a conditional
discharge. He is appealing the conviction.
Murray filed a lawsuit against Walker in 2003 and received information in
that ongoing proceeding that led to the second lawsuit filed recently
against Higgins and five other officers.
The second lawsuit alleges that after Walker was charged, Higgins "wrote to
numerous individuals" to say the prosecution against Murray "now took on a
new tone."
The detective, who was the officer in charge of the Murray investigation,
is accused of placing "undue and improper pressure" on the Crown not to
drop the charges against Murray, according to the court documents.
Higgins was formerly part of a now-disbanded drug squad that was the
subject of a nearly 30-month-long RCMP-led internal task force probe. Six
of his colleagues were charged with a total of 40-corruption related
offences in January 2004. No charges were laid against Higgins by the task
force.
The officer was also a defendant in a civil suit settled by the city in
2002 after members of a Vietnamese family claimed they were robbed and
threatened by drug squad officers during a raid. The financial terms of the
settlement were not made public.
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