TORONTO DRUG SQUAD FACES MORE CHARGES

TORONTO - Additional members of a scandal-plagued Toronto police drug squad
will be charged with Police Act disciplinary offences as a result of the
findings of an RCMP-led task force.

The corruption-related offences are expected to be filed later this spring
- -- at least 15 months after they were recommended by the task force.

"The Toronto Police Service will seek to lay charges," confirmed Staff
Insp. George Cowley, the senior prosecutor in its professional standards
unit. He said the filing of charges was delayed for procedural reasons.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner John Neily led an internal Toronto police task
force in July 2001 to probe allegations that officers in a now disbanded
squad stole money and drugs and assaulted suspects during raids in the late
1990s.

The allegations led prosecutors to stay or withdraw charges in more than
200 drug cases.

The Neily task force concluded there was evidence 12 officers committed
"serious criminal offences," according to court documents unsealed last
year. Disciplinary charges were also recommended against "several" officers.

In January 2004, the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General decided to
charge only six officers with a total of 40 criminal offences.

The confirmation that additional officers will be charged comes amid
increasing concern about the status of the ongoing criminal prosecutions.

Sex assault and weapons charges against Const. Ned Maodus, one of the
officers facing corruption charges, were thrown out by a judge last month.

The charges were laid in March 2002. A three-year delay between the
officer's arrest and the start of his trial violated his charter rights,
ruled Justice Terrance O'Connor, who criticized the Crown for failing its
disclosure obligations.

The judge noted Const. Maodus had lived under virtual house arrest at his
parents' home in Windsor, Ont., because of bail restrictions.

Const. Maodus and his five co-defendants on the corruption charges have
been suspended with pay since their arrest. Their trial is not expected to
begin until 2007 and the delay is likely to result in a similar defence
motion to dismiss these charges.