DRUG CASES IN TROUBLE, LAWYERS SAY

Stayed Charges Linked To Probe Of Police Officers

A number of cases involving members of a troubled Toronto police drug
squad have been dropped recently and more are in jeopardy, defence
lawyers say.

During the past few weeks, crown attorneys have stayed proceedings in
several narcotics cases with little explanation, but there is a
growing sense it all stems from the controversy surrounding the
now-disbanded central field command drug squad, lawyers say.

On Monday alone, three cases involving large amounts of cocaine and
heroin were stayed by federal drug prosecutors, which means they have
one year to start up legal proceedings again.

Six drug squad officers are currently under the scrutiny of the
province's civilian police watchdog agency. They have been temporarily
reassigned to other units.

Last year, a Toronto police complaint investigator found that two men
suspected by the squad of dealing drugs had been unjustly detained,
strip-searched and had their homes searched in October, 1997, without
police obtaining a warrant. Detective William Nelson found that
charges of discreditable conduct were warranted against Detectives
John Schertzer and Ned Maodus, and Detective Constables Jonathan Reid,
Gregory Forestall, Joseph Miched and Steve Correia.

The two detained men were released without charge. One of them, Memis
Sipar, launched a formal complaint, which led to the police
investigator's findings.

"The very essence of fundamental justice was denied" to the men,
Nelson wrote in his "investigator's opinion," a summary of his probe
into Sipar's complaint.

A police force adjudicator never heard that evidence. He dismissed the
complaint on a time-limit technicality. The Ontario Civilian
Commission on Police Services is in the process of reviewing the case.
Earlier this month, the commission quashed a bid by the officers'
lawyer to end the complaint.

Monday's three stayed cases, being heard in three different
courtrooms, involved links to the central field command drug squad

* At old city hall, a federal prosecutor stayed charges against Silvio
Scaduto, who was represented by Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby. It was a
major heroin trafficking case involving three-quarters of a kilogram
of the illicit narcotic. The crown dropped the charges after Madam
Justice Rebecca Shaimi of the Ontario Court of Justice refused to give
prosecutors an adjournment so they could have more time to deal with a
disclosure issue involving the now-disbanded downtown drug squad.

* In another Ontario courtroom, the crown stayed drug charges against
Edgar Whyte and Clifford Robinson. The case involved 1.2 kilograms of
cocaine allegedly found in a car at a business address. Again the
crown stayed the charges after raising unspecified disclosure issues
in court. The arrest involved some of the same downtown-based drug
squad officers mired in controversy.

* Over at the Superior Court of Justice on University Ave., charges of
cocaine trafficking and possession of 85 grams of powder cocaine for
the purpose of trafficking against two men were stayed just as their
trial began. The crown attorney gave no reasons for the move. The case
involves four officers from the drug squad Schertzer, Maodus, Reid and
Correia.

Lawyer Lorne Sabsay, who represented one of the accused men in that
case, said he had asked the crown for disclosure on any investigations
into the officers and was told a few days before the trial that the
charges would be stayed. Again, no reasons were given.

Sabsay said he believes the crown is not willing to proceed with cases
involving certain officers attached to the drug squad because of
ongoing investigations, particularly the civilian review of the Sipar
complaint.

"I think what's going on here is the department, until the smoke
clears on these officers, I think that they are not proceeding with
any charges that involve only a certain (number) of these officers,"
said Sabsay. "I think that the prosecution realizes that there's a
potentially extremely embarrassing set of circumstances that are
coming to light."

A spokesperson for Toronto police would not comment when contacted by
The Star.