Those are among the details to emerge with the leak of the 29-page document written by then RCMP chief superintendent John Neily and addressed to former Toronto police chief Julian Fantino.

The report provides an overview of a three-year, $8 million investigation that Neily headed that resulted in criminal charges being laid against six officers in January 2004. Justice Ian Nordheimer stayed those charges in January citing the “glacial progress of this prosecution.”

The Crown is appealing the decision.

Neily is now assistant commissioner with the Mounties in Ottawa and did not return calls yesterday from the Star.

“Since there is still a possibility of these cases coming before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment,” said Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash.

Much of the report is focused on the conduct of now-retired Det.-Sgt. John Schertzer, who Neily alleges led a small group of officers under his supervision “on a crime spree in the drug culture of Toronto thereby obstructing the administration of justice.”

According to the report, the officers are alleged by accused drug dealers to have used excessive force, lied to judges, stolen illicit drugs and cash and conducted unlawful searches and seizures. There were at least 47 complaints about theft from 1997 to 1999, Neily wrote.

A review of Schertzer’s personnel file, Neily said, “will show this man had problems from almost the time he first hit the streets of Toronto. At the time of his promotion to Detective Sergeant in 1999, he had been the subject of no less than 20 public complaints which had resulted in effectively no finding or foundation from a wide variety of investigations.”

Schertzer’s lawyer, John Rosen, said yesterday the media is “taking this report completely out of context.”
“My client has always maintained his innocence. He did nothing wrong and had there been a trial, had the Crown done their work in a timely way, we would have been able to get him acquitted… . There was no substance to these charges.”

Neily says in his report that before he got involved, there were various attempts by Toronto police officers to address complaints being levelled against members of the now-disbanded Central Field Command Drug Squad, Team 3.

One attempted review, conducted by Det. David Eagleson, compared 16 complaints and found common traits “from diverse complainants who had no knowledge of each other.” Yet his attempt to relay that information to senior officers “met with no success.”

Another investigation, this time by internal affairs in 1999, concluded there were “reasonable and probable grounds to believe that Schertzer and certain members of his crew had committed several criminal acts.” But that probe also failed to delve deeper, he said.

There was also a tremendous reluctance internally to “put any weight to the complaints of drug traffickers” even though the stories were “strikingly similar among diverse individuals with limited or no prior contact.”

As well, forensic accountants found the financial situations of some of the officers improved while they were with the drug squad, then “deteriorated” when they left.

Defence lawyer Edward Sapiano, who first brought the corruption allegations to light, said yesterday there have been many positive developments in the wake of Neily’s probe even though the charges against the officers were stayed.

“The jury pool, the public, have now been educated that they need to be a little bit more cynical and critical of police testimony,” he said.

Sapiano added he also believes judges, especially newer ones, have become much more cautious about accepting police testimony.

Do you Like or Dislike the above comment: 0  0