FORMER CITY COP JOINED 'DARK SIDE,' COURT TOLD

EDMONTON - A former city police sergeant turned private investigator
joined the "dark side" when he was allegedly hired by a law firm to
track down a confidential police source in a drug case, then asked a
police officer he was friends with to drop the charges, the officer
testified in court.

"I couldn't understand how a person with his experience... could
harm, could try to expose a source," Sgt. Kevin Brezinski said
Thursday. "That's what I refer to as the dark side."

Ross Barros, a member of the Edmonton Police Service for 27 years,
was charged in 2005 with two counts of extortion and attempting to
obstruct justice in the case of Ifran Qureshi. Qureshi is awaiting
trial on numerous drug and weapons charges.

A preliminary hearing is now underway before provincial court Judge
David McNab to determine if there is enough evidence against Barros
to proceed to trial. In an unusual move, lawyers did not request a
publication ban on the proceedings. An accused is not required to
call evidence at a preliminary hearing.

Brezinski, a member of the police Integrated Response to Organized
Crime unit, testified he was golfing with Barros in May 2005 when
Barros said he had identified the police informant in the Qureshi
case. Brezinski said Barros told him: "This is bad for me and bad for
you." Brezinski testified Barros said he had been hired by defence
lawyer Sid Tarrabain, but Tarrabain didn't want to know the source's name.

Brezinski said Barros then implied the charges in the case should be
dropped and said a group of men believed to be associates of Qureshi
had offered to hand over some guns as part of the deal.

Brezinski said he asked Barros how he could do such a thing.

"He said, 'What do you expect, the way the police service treated
me?' " Barros was having difficulties with a superior officer when he
retired from the police force in 2001, said Brezinski. Brezinski
testified he refused to help Barros that day and told him they were
no longer friends.

Under cross-examination by defence lawyer Peter Royal, Brezinski said
he has previously been approached outside court, before trials start,
by defence lawyers claiming they know the names of police sources in
hopes of having charges dropped against their clients.