DRUG BUST BACKFIRED, OFFICER TESTIFIES

A routine drug buy turned into a life-or-death nightmare for a Toronto
undercover police officer when three men cornered him, and two of them
pointed guns at his head and groin and demanded all his cash, the officer
testified yesterday.

Constable Michael Ferry told a jury he was unarmed when the men he was
attempting to bust for trafficking crack cocaine turned guns on him in
broad daylight on the afternoon of July 27, 2000.

He was forced to yank a wad of $20 bills from his sandal, throw it to the
ground and dash from the laneway beside an east Toronto apartment building
where the deal was to happen, the officer said.

One of the men "appeared to be in a frenzy," Constable Ferry said. "I
yelled 'Don't shoot. Take it all.' "

No shots were fired, but Constable Ferry said he ran away in "a zigzag
fashion" to avoid being shot.

But lawyers for the defendants in Ontario Superior Court accused Constable
Ferry of fabricating the incident and faking his notes.

"I suggest you knew you had been recognized . . . and that's when you
dropped what you had and ran," said defence lawyer Gary Fowler,
representing Devon Taylor.

"You did not have guns pointed at your head or your groin. What you had was
a situation where your cover was blown and you had to get out of there."

"That's an absolutely disgusting suggestion, sir," the officer replied.

Mr. Taylor, Samuel Denny and Roy Thomas, all in their early 20s, face
charges of robbery and trafficking. Mr. Denny and Mr. Taylor also face gun
charges.

Constable Ferry testified that he met Mr. Taylor during a raid on the St.
Leonard hotel in April of 2000, when he found him in a "drug flophouse"
while executing a search warrant. Mr. Denny was also a found-in at the St.
Leonard, he said, but testified he did not recognize him on July 27.
Officers who briefed him that day referred to Mr. Denny by the nickname
Loonie, Constable Ferry said.

The officer said his role on July 27 was to arrange to buy an eight ball,
or one-eighth of an ounce of crack, from Loonie, who would be arrested by
seven officers tailing Constable Ferry.

After several calls between Mr. Denny's pager and Constable Ferry's
cellphone, and three last-minute changes of rendezvous, they finally hooked
up in a lane beside a building on Broadview Avenue north of Danforth
Avenue, the officer said.

Mr. Denny and Mr. Taylor came into the alley and asked if he had the cash.
Then Mr. Denny went inside to get the crack, he said. The officer signalled
to his partner, in a car parked near the laneway, that the deal was about
to happen. But moments later, Mr. Denny and Mr. Thomas emerged from a side
door and told Constable Ferry to come inside, he testified.

He recognized Mr. Thomas as the man nicknamed Ghost, whom he had seen at
the St. Leonard, but he did not think Mr. Thomas recognized him, he said.

When he refused to go inside, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Denny pulled guns and
shouted to him to hand over his money, Constable Ferry said.

Defence lawyer Andrew Vaughan, representing Mr. Thomas, told the officer,
"You are not telling the truth to the jury." He said the times written in
the officer's notes correspond too neatly to the times listed in his
cellphone records, which were not available until several days after the
incident.

"I'm suggesting you did not make your notes on the day, . . . that you went
back and reconstructed your notes using the cellphone records," Mr. Vaughan
said.

"Absolutely not," the officer replied. The trial continues.