NARCOTICS CASE COSTS CROWN TEAM $116,000 PENALTY

Prosecution To Pay Ontario Man's Legal Fees After Withholding Crucial
Evidence Before Trial

Hamilton, Ont. - An Ontario judge nailed federal lawyers yesterday with the
highest monetary award in the history of the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, citing "gross misconduct" by the Crown and the RCMP in a serious
narcotics case.

Awarding legal costs of $116,086 against the Department of Justice, Mr.
Justice Walter Stayshyn of the Ontario Superior Court said angrily that
government lawyers still appear blind to the wrong they did in withholding
vital evidence from the defence.

"The judge has said that if police are going to ... act improperly and
deprive accused people of a fair trial, they are going to pay a huge
price," defence counsel Edward Greenspan said after the ruling.

The case involved several charges of cocaine and marijuana trafficking
against a 44-year-old Hamilton man, Sauro Greganti. Mr. Greganti faced a
maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

In staying the charges, Judge Stayshyn called the failure of the Crown and
police to disclose material shocking and deliberate. He said it smacked of
the sort of nightmare one might encounter in a police state.

Judge Stayshyn said yesterday that nobody expects perfection from
prosecutors, since they are overburdened and partly dependent on the
candour of the police. However, the justice system cannot countenance
careless or reckless behaviour, he said.

Mr. Greganti was arrested in April, 1997, after a two-year investigation
involving more than 50 police officers. The case against him consisted
largely of evidence from an informant seeking favours in return for his
testimony.

The material in question included RCMP debriefing notes and officers'
running diaries of their relationship with the informant.

Mr. Greganti spent eight months in jail before being granted bail.

Yesterday, he credited Mr. Greenspan and co-counsel Jane Kelly with
ferreting out the documents that led Judge Stayshyn to throw out the charges.

In the end, Mr. Greganti said, the justice system worked for him -- but
only because he and his extended family managed to scrape together enough
money to afford top-flight lawyers and then encountered an insightful judge.

"If anything, it has restored my faith that somebody in the justice system
saw through it all," Mr. Greganti said. "But how many people are in jail
because they didn't have the right help?"

Mr. Greganti said the award will cover the majority of his legal costs, and
a supplementary order by Judge Stayshyn will reverse a freeze police placed
on his home, automobiles and other assets.

However, he said, the money can do nothing to resolve the emotional debt
his family is owed.

"This kind of thing punishes everybody around you," he said. "My wife and
kids suffered even more than I did. My parents took it really hard. And
there will always be people who will say: 'Oh, he just got away with it.' "

Mr. Greenspan said no previous awards under a special section of the
Charter of Rights have even approached yesterday's award.

"Coming from a very senior and well-respected judge, this judgment will
reverberate through Canada," he said. "I hope it is going to be the
beginning of a trend to send a message to police that they cannot lie and
cheat."

Mr. Greenspan said his client will "most probably" now launch a civil
action for damages against the police and the Crown.

Most of the undisclosed material in Mr. Greganti's case was handed over
virtually on the eve of trial. Judge Stayshyn said it rendered meaningless
most of the defence preparations for trial.

The judge also noted yesterday that in recent arguments on the issue of
legal costs, prosecutor William West went so far as to outline what he felt
was a bright side to the fiasco.

"Mr. West submitted before me that by not turning over many of the
documents in its possession, the RCMP actually reduced the time the defence
required in the preparation of its case," Judge Stayshyn said.

He said that statement plainly demonstrated that the Crown cannot grasp
that the purpose behind full disclosure is to allow defence lawyers time to
reach meaningful strategic decisions before trial.

Judge Stayshyn grew even more testy when Mr. West balked yesterday at
returning some of the possessions and money seized from Mr. Greganti. At
one point, the prosecutor said he was unsure of the status of Mr.
Greganti's 1993 Volkswagen Jetta.

"You have three counsel sitting there, and you had three last time, and you
still haven't had time to check that out?" Judge Stayshyn asked incredulously.

In a press release yesterday, the RCMP said it is conducting an internal
inquiry into the case.

"This is a unique case and will be examined closely to identify possible
areas of improvement in what are already very demanding procedures," the
release said.