FROM TOP COP ... TO $20,000 BAIL

It was the inspector's final e-mail to the Hamilton Police Service.

Sent out, department wide, last August. Then, almost as soon as it
arrived in hundreds of in-boxes, it was cleared off the system by
administration.

"To All HPS Staff:

"During my rewarding 35 years in policing I have met a wide variety
of people, many of whom I consider my friends. I have chosen to
retire and I want to thank those I have had the pleasure of serving
with. I am proud of my contributions to our community during my career.

"Policing requires honour, integrity and a spirit of helping others.
It's important that all of us, at all levels, remember that.

"I am excited about my new career in teaching where I can share my
life experiences and pass on ethics, values and integrity to the next
generation of policing.

"Wishing you all well in the future!!

"Rick Wills."

Three months later, Chief Brian Mullan asked the OPP to investigate Wills.

On Wednesday, Wills was arrested on 47 fraud-related charges. He
spent the night in jail and appeared in court yesterday afternoon,
where he was let out on $20,000 bail.

Wills, 54, was one of the city's highest-ranking and highest profile
police officers, handling some of the service's most sensitive and
secretive investigations.

For years as a drug officer, he chased after Hamilton's notorious
Gravelle crime family.

In 1988, he was involved in a joint operation with the RCMP in
targeting the family. No charges came out of it. But Wills continued
to keep tabs on the family for another three years until Andre and
his brother Paul were busted in Florida for importing hash oil. Both
were convicted.

A year before the bust, according to court documents filed in a later
bail hearing for Andre, the vice and drugs unit allegedly received
information that Andre had put a hit out on Wills' life and the
contract had been accepted by Ion Croitoru -- a.k.a. Johnny K-9.
Wills would later testify he took precautions for himself and his
family, but eventually the situation "cooled off" after another
officer spoke to Andre. (In granting Andre bail, Justice Donald
Gordon would say he had doubts about the likelihood of a hit on
Wills.) Wills continued to keep tabs on the Gravelles until 1999,
according to the bail hearing documents.

In 2005, Andre and Johnny K-9 were both arrested for the 1999 shotgun
murders of criminal lawyer Lynn Gilbank and her husband Fred.

But just before the case went to trial, the Crown withdrew the
charges, saying there was no reasonable chance of conviction.

Ten years after their deaths, the Gilbanks murders remain unsolved.

By the mid 1990s, Wills was the Hamilton police biker expert,
investigating Satan's Choice, the Red Devils and Hells Angels.

In 1998, he was a detective in the major fraud branch, unravelling
elaborate schemes to bilk people and organizations out of their money.

Wills went back into vice and drugs in 1999, this time as a sergeant
heading up the unit. While there, he arrested Andre Gravelle again in
a $4 million pot bust. Charges were later withdrawn against Andre.

Wills went on to arrest Paul Gravelle for conspiring to smuggle
nearly $1 million worth of hash oil into Hamilton. Paul received a
conditional sentence.

He also arrested David Helson, one-time head of the Hamilton Criminal
Lawyers' Association, for smuggling drugs into the Barton Street
jail. Helson was acquitted after a three-day trial.

At the time of Helson's arrest, Wills told The Spectator the case was
disappointing because it involved allegations against someone
expected to be a trusted officer of the court.

By 2004, Wills was promoted to inspector and worked in the
Investigative Services Division, overseeing vice and drugs, major
crime, the child abuse branch, major fraud and the intelligence unit.
He and other members of vice and drugs were presented with an award
that year for their efforts to use a multi-agency task force to shut
down crack houses.

When four Mounties were murdered in a drug raid in Mayerthorpe,
Alberta, in 2005, Wills asked, and was given permission, to represent
Hamilton police at the memorial service.

In the summer of 2007, he wore his police dress uniform when he, his
wife Doreen, their son and daughter-in-law had tea with the Queen at
Buckingham Palace.

The impressive mess kit caught the eye of Prince Philip, who asked
Wills about his uniform. Prince Charles quipped that with Wills at
the garden party, Hamilton's criminals must be running amok.

Last June, Wills was moved out of ISD and into the court branch. He
was there only a short time before retiring. After that, he taught
briefly in the police program at Mohawk College.

In his personal life, Wills has been an active Rotary member, doing
volunteer work at Hess Street School. He's also an avid golfer and
member of the Beverly Golf and Country Club.