3 COPS NAMED IN PROBE

IDs Unsealed In 2001 Cocaine Case

Warrants naming three officers in a controversial probe of cocaine use
by members of a former drug squad have finally been unsealed.

Sun Media and the CBC went to the Supreme Court of Canada after the
Toronto Police Association appealed for the identities of Paul Robert
Drury, Nunziato Donato Tramontozzi and Douglas Grant Rose to be kept
sealed.

"They (the TPA) were obviously adamantly opposed to anybody finding
out about this, which may lend some credence to the idea that there
may not have ever properly been a proper investigation done of these
cops," media lawyer Iain MacKinnon said yesterday after the documents
were released.

Allegations from a police agent led to a 2001 sting against Toronto
Police Det.-Const. Rob Kelly, who pleaded guilty to two counts of
possessing cocaine in 2003.

RCMP TASK FORCE

The investigation was taken up jointly between the Toronto Police
internal affairs department and an RCMP task force led by Staff-Supt.
John Neily.

In affidavits sworn by Det. James Lowry, the three former drug squad
officers were named alongside Kelly as having been seen by the police
agent snorting lines of cocaine.

But none was ever charged or disciplined.

"The agent gave information that this squad of officers had been
involved in consuming cocaine, but Kelly was the only one that he had
really singled out specifically doing specific things at specific
times," lawyer Peter Brauti, who defended Kelly, said yesterday. "In
relation to these other officers, he kind of threw out just a vague,
'Yeah, they were doing it, too,'"

"They (investigators) followed up with the agent and said, 'Well, can
you give me any more specifics, you've really told me nothing other
than these bald allegations,' and the agent said, 'Well, really the
only guy that I'm making these allegations is in relation to Kelly.'
So he sort of backed away from his original thing," Brauti said.

'INNOCENT'

Two ex-investigators have publicly claimed that police bosses covered
up and/or refused to investigate allegations of corruption and
criminal activity by Toronto Police officers that had been disclosed
by Neily's task force.

"The persons whose names have just now been released are innocent,"
lawyer David Butt said in a statement on behalf of Drury, Tramontozzi
and Rose. "They were investigated and cleared."

"It is unfortunate that they and their families now have to bear the
risk of undeserved stigma from discredited allegations dating all the
way back to 2001," Butt said, adding the trio "wish to have no contact
with anyone from the media on this issue."

"There's no doubt in my mind that these guys are completely innocent
and they unfortunately got dragged into this case," Brauti said.

MacKinnon noted that while the police union has "all along tried to
paint this police agent as a guy who's a criminal, a bad guy who just
lies," the agent's allegations led to a guilty plea for Kelly.

While Drury works out of 12 Division, it's not known where Tramontozzi
and Rose are working. Kelly, a 17-year officer with a long list of
commendations, quit in mid-2006 and is now an agent with Meadowtowne
Realty in Mississauga.