POLICE CHARGES STAYED, LIBERALS ATTACKED FOR 'INCOMPETENCE'

Courtroom Erupts In Tears Of Joy As Extortion, Assault Charges Thrown Out

A downtown Toronto courtroom erupted in tears of joy today as
charges of extortion and assault against six Toronto police officers
were tossed out of court.

Justice Ian Nordheimer was critical of prosecutors for taking so
long to get the case to trial in what was called, at the time, the
biggest corruption scandal in the history of the force.

He stayed the charges that were laid in early 2004 against Staff
Sergeant John Schertzer and Constables Steven Correia, Ned Maodus,
Joseph Miched, Raymond Pollard and Richard Benoit.

"It's been an agonizing 10 years," said Schertzer, who has since
retired from the force after 32 years.

"It's been a stressful, painful journey. I want to begin the healing
process. We were innocent all along. They chose to ignore the
evidence," he said, referring to the prosecutors and the special
task force that investigated his drug unit.

Schertzer said he was sickened by the fact that more than 200 cases
involving drug dealers had been tossed out of court after he and his
team were charged.

"How many drug dealers are still out there walking the streets,
doing their crimes, because of the injustice that was done to me and my team?"

At Queen's Park, meantime, the opposition parties tore into the
Liberal government over what it called incompetence that led to the
staying of the corruption charges.

"It's absolutely a disgrace and it brings disrepute on the justice
system to have charges of any kind thrown out in this way," said
Progressive Conservatives Leader John Tory.

"We see instance after instance, all around the province, charges are
being dropped, cases are being thrown out because of delay on the
part of the justice system ... it has to be fixed, and Mr. McGuinty
refuses to do so."

The Ontario Superior court judge who stayed the charges criticized
Crown prosecutors for "unreasonable" delays in getting the case to trial.

The charges were laid in 2004 following a two-year, RCMP-led probe
into allegations of corruption, deceit and brutality among members of
Toronto's drug squad.

The investigation led to 40 individual charges against the officers,
including perjury, theft, extortion and assault causing bodily harm.

The RCMP had alleged that from 1995 to 2002, the officers forged
notes and police records, gave false testimony and affidavits to
obtain search warrants, and failed to account for seized evidence.

Attorney General Chris Bentley wouldn't comment on the case today but
said the ministry was reviewing the judge's decision.

"What I will say is that it's an important priority for me to build
on what we've been doing in the last four years: to work with the
criminal justice partners to make sure that cases get to trial
through the courts as quickly and effectively as possible," he said
in an interview.

NDP justice critic Peter Kormos joined Tory in slamming the Liberals
for the Crown delays in the case, calling it "despicable."

"Once again this proves that the McGuinty Liberals are just too
incompetent to deal with the problems in our justice system," Kormos
said in a release.

With files from Canadian Press