TIME RAN OUT ON COP PROBE?

Ex-Chief Fantino 'Obviously' Shut Down Police Corruption Task Force,
Lawyer Alleges

The lawyer for a former pizza store owner who claims more than
$220,000 went missing after a 1999 Toronto Police drug raid asserts
that the head of the RCMP-led cop corruption task force told him the
massive probe was shut down because of "a problem with time and resources."

Lawyer Peter Biro said special task force head RCMP Chief-Supt. John
Neily, now an assistant commissioner, told him the reason he was
given for the 2003 probe being shut down after police cancelled two
scheduled interviews with his client, pizza store owner Milos Markovic.

"The chief superintendent told me that it wasn't his decision ... and
that it wasn't his choice ... that the work of the task force was at
an end ... there was a problem of time and resources," Biro said in
an interview yesterday.

Biro said the order to close the probe "obviously" came from former
chief Julian Fantino, now OPP commissioner.

"He did shut down the task force. The task force was not shut down by
. Neily. The task force was shut down by the office that appointed it
in the first place. That's how independent this task force was in the
first place," he said.

Biro said he decided to go public about Neily's comments for the
first time yesterday after current Chief Bill Blair publicly defended
the task force's scope and integrity and noted that it was the
largest probe ever in Canadian police history and that $8 million and
many thousands of hours were spent on it.

"What he didn't tell you is that they were not given a chance to
complete their work," Biro said.

Fantino said through an aide yesterday that he would "prefer not to
comment ... at this particular time."

Former task force member and "whistle-blower" Sgt. Jim Cassells has
alleged that "numerous" allegations of wrongdoing uncovered during
the three-year Neily task force probe were either minimized, ignored
or swept under the rug by senior officers.

Another former task force member, retired Sgt. Neal Ward, has
supported Cassells' assertions, saying Cassells is mostly "quite correct."

Toronto Police Services Board chairman Alok Mukherjee said Wednesday
that he would "welcome" a public inquiry as long as it does not
jeopardize criminal charges against six former drug squad cops that
are currently before the courts. He stressed yesterday that any
decision to call an inquiry rests with the province, but he would
embrace one if it were called.

As revealed by the Toronto Sun earlier this week, an internal report
written by then-Insp. Tony Corrie recommended months before the task
force was created that a task force would bring the issues to the
"forefront" and at the same time "avert" a public inquiry.

Biro said that while he is "relieved and pleased" Muk-herjee welcomes
a public inq-uiry he is concerned about "the passage of time that
will have gone by, before this matter really gets the kind of
scrutiny, or public airing it needs to get."

In January, 2004, the Neily task force laid a total of 40 criminal
charges against Staff-Sgt. John Schertzer and five former drug squad
subordinates -- Steve Corriea, Ray Pollard, Rick Benoit, Ned Maodus
and Joe Miched -- on allegations that they had conspired to take cash
and drugs from suspected drug dealers. All but Benoit were committed
to trial on conspiracy charges in June. Benoit will be tried for an
alleged assault. All the officers deny the allegations

Sources say one of the cases that former task force members was not
fully probed was the Markovic case.

In a statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court of Justice in
2000, Markovic and his wife, Natasa, seek $1.35 million in damages on
allegations that large amounts of Canadian and American cash and
other goods were stolen after an Oct. 28, 1999 raid on their Maestro
Pizza store, located at 896 Wilson Ave., and at their house in Richmond Hill.

The statement of claim contains allegations that have not been tested
in court. In a statement of defence the officers named in the lawsuit
denied any wrongdoing.

The Markovics allege police seized about $397,000 and never returned
more than $220,000. Drug trafficking charges against Markovic were
ultimately stayed without explanation.

Biro said Markovic asserts he was never a drug dealer and alleges
that amounts of cocaine were planted in his house and pizza store.

The Markovics lost their pizza store due to the cash that was lost, Biro said.

"A task force claims to have completed its investigation without
interviewing subjects who are central to the investigation ... key
witnesses in the entire story," Biro said.