TORONTO LAWYER ACQUITTED OF DRUG CHARGES

Veteran defence lawyer Edmund Schofield is free of drug trafficking
charges after a federal prosecutor chose not to present evidence at
the 74-year-old former FBI agent's trial.

Edmund Schofield has been cleared of Don Jail drug charges."I think
it's essentially being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the
lady guard misinterpreting what happened," Schofield responded when
asked how he - a highly respected lawyer of 40 years with an
impeccable reputation - ended up facing accusations of smuggling
drugs to an inmate at Toronto's Don Jail.

"Absolutely everybody was shocked. It was shock and disbelief,"
Brenda Lawson, Schofield's lawyer, tells Law Times in describing the
reaction to the charges. "Having had an unblemished career, to have
these allegations that he was trafficking in marijuana and cocaine -
no one believed it to be true."

Schofield was arrested on March 27, 2007 after meeting the prisoner.
A guard saw the inmate adjusting his pants during their discussion.

The likable lawyer spent the night in jail before being released the
next morning on $10,000 bail from friend and lawyer David O'Connor.

"It was horrible," Schofield, who was an FBI agent from 1960 to 1966
and Ontario prosecutor in the late 1960s, tells Law Times in an
interview. "If that's the way they treat prisoners, it's totally
wrong - on a cast iron bed with no blankets, no pillows. You're
sitting there freezing and just stressed out of your mind. It was my
worst night in 74 years."

He adds that the security guards at Old City Hall, where his bail
hearing was held, "couldn't have been nicer to me."

Schofield was cleared of the two trafficking charges when Ottawa
prosecutor Luc Boucher told Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell
the Crown would not show evidence at the trial.

"It's good to have it over," a visibly relieved Schofield told the judge.

Boucher said outside court there was no reasonable prospect of
conviction after the evidence presented at a preliminary inquiry.

One of Schofield's four daughters, Toronto psychiatrist Sally
Schofield, says she believes there was contradictory testimony at the
preliminary inquiry.

Her father says the inmate testified he already had the drugs on him
prior to their meeting. In fact, at the prelim the prisoner showed
the judge how he was able to conceal drugs in his shorts during strip
searches; he dropped his pants to reveal how he had managed to
smuggle wadded papers inside a sock pouch in his underwear into court
that day, despite two searches.

Boucher says he's not aware of any investigation into the guards who
testified at the preliminary inquiry. Carol Schofield, Edmund's wife
of 49 years, suggests the Don Jail be retrofitted to prevent a
similar incident. She says a pane of glass should separate lawyers
from prisoners during interviews.

She says she was "very relieved that this is all over." But not
without "a few issues," including that it took "17 months for this
thing to be resolved." She adds: "Maybe someone should do a big
investigation of how drugs are getting into the Don Jail . . . Ed is
the last person in the world who would ever take them in.

"I couldn't believe it," she says of when she heard of the charges
right after she'd had hip replacement surgery. "I thought it had to
be a mistake."

In an interesting twist, Schofield was represented on the case by
Lawson, his former legal assistant/law clerk. Lawson worked for him
from 1983 to 1986, during which time she did everything from his
typing and billings to appearing in court to set trial dates.

Lawson moved on to work as O'Connor's law clerk, where she decided
she wanted to become a lawyer. But being a single mother, she had to
put her dream on hold.

Years later she began preparing for law school, and eventually got
into Osgoode Hall Law School as a mature student in 2004 at age 48.

It was only the second time she had worn her gown when Lawson -
called to the bar in June and now a law partner and wife of O'Connor
- - appeared in court to represent Schofield.

Lawson says it was rewarding to be able to help her former boss, whom
she describes as someone who would do the same thing for anyone else.

"He's just phenomenal. He'd give anybody the shirt off his back. He's
very kind and thoughtful," says Lawson of Schofield.

She notes that O'Connor, who represented Schofield at the prelim,
after a new surety stepped forward so that he could act in the case,
asked one of the guards if he'd had any prior contact with the accused.

"He said, 'Yes, as a matter of fact I had,'" she recalls. The witness
went on to tell a story of how at one time he was guarding a
hospitalized inmate represented by Schofield, who would visit the
prisoner and bring him lunch and coffee.

"That's just the kind of guy he is," says Lawson.

Schofield says he has received support throughout the ordeal from
people in all walks of the justice system. He says he got hugs and
kind words from defence lawyers, prosecutors, justices of the peace,
and court clerks after news of his acquittal circulated.

"It's one way to find out who your friends are," says Schofield. "And
they're all over the lot . . . Everybody that's in the business has
been totally supportive."

Lawyers Edward and Brian Greenspan, who happened to be at the 361
University Ave. courthouse on an unrelated matter across the hall,
shook hands with Schofield and congratulated him. The brothers said
they offered themselves as character witnesses as soon as they heard
of the charges.

Moments after the acquittal, Brian Greenspan called Schofield "a fine
lawyer . . . and person of real integrity." Edward Greenspan agreed
wholeheartedly, adding that as for visiting the Don Jail, if lawyers
are "able to go in with more than one person you try to."

Lawyer Michael O'Neail, who was asked by Schofield to call his
daughter on the night of the arrest, also attended court to support his friend.

"They couldn't have picked a worse guy as far as getting a conviction
because his reputation is impeccable," says O'Neail. "There was no
doubt whatsoever of his innocence."

Schofield, who spent the morning of his acquittal running between
three courthouses to represent clients, planned to celebrate later
that day with a vodka and tonic - after spending the afternoon in
court representing another client.

When asked if he'll go into the Don Jail again, Schofield pauses:
"Probably not," he says.

- - With files from Gretchen Drummie