MAN FREED OVER HIDDEN EVIDENCE

Judge Says RCMP Broke The Law In Big Drug Case

A man accused in a major drug trafficking operation walked free yesterday
after a judge ruled the Royal Canadian Mounted Police flagrantly broke the
law by concealing thousands of pages of key evidence from his defence lawyers.

In freeing Sauro Greganti, 44, Mr. Justice Walter Stayshyn of the Ontario
Superior Court in Hamilton said federal prosecutors must share the blame
for the Mounties' ``oppressive'' and ``obstructionist'' conduct, which
could only offend most Canadians' sense of fair play and decency.

``I am shocked and dismayed that the RCMP, the chief federal police agency
in Canada, would act in direct contravention of the clear law of Canada,''
Stayshyn said yesterday in what is believed to be one of the most strongly
worded court rulings on misconduct by police and prosecutors.

``I know of no authority creating a secret police state permitting the
withholding of vital defence disclosure,'' he said in staying the charges.

``The sins of the police are the sins of the prosecution.''

Greganti's lawyer, Eddie Greenspan, called the judge's ruling ``a
millennial message to the RCMP.

``The courts will embarrass and humiliate them publicly if they fail to
provide disclosure,'' he said.

Greganti, of Sault Ste. Marie, faced the prospect of life imprisonment if
convicted on nine of the 12 charges laid against him in April, 1997, after
a two-year investigation by more than 50 RCMP officers into an alleged drug
trafficking operation involving large amounts of cocaine, hashish and hash oil.

On Nov. 14, 1997, on the eve of a preliminary hearing, federal prosecutor
Brian Lawson assured Andrew Matheson, a lawyer at Greenspan's firm, that
the ``overwhelming bulk'' of evidence had been disclosed.

One month later, more than 3,100 pages of never-mentioned police files
arrived on their doorstep. Extensive disclosure, or so they thought.

Last Sept. 9, one day after Greganti's trial was to have begun, police and
prosecutors delivered to the defence some 3,500 additional pages of
investigative files, many of which the federal justice department had known
about since 1991 and which could have undermined the crown's case.

The evidence included notes in which police repeatedly challenged the
reliability of their own agent, Mario Briglio, who was supposed to be the
key witness against Greganti.

Greganti, who spent seven months in custody until being granted bail, is
scheduled to be back at the Hamilton courthouse with Greenspan on Tuesday
to address the issue of costs against the RCMP and the federal government.