ACCUSED PEEL OFFICER TO TESTIFY

A Peel Regional Police officer facing drug-related charges will
testify in his own defence this summer.

Cst. Sheldon Cook, 40, has pleaded not guilty to seven criminal
offences, most of those in connection with a botched RCMP-controlled
drug delivery on Nov. 16, 2005.

Cook appeared in court today, but the trial has essentially been
adjourned until the week of Aug. 17 due to the availability of all
parties involved in the case. Cook will testify for at least a few
days in August.

Court recently heard that Cook never explained in a series of calls
or meetings what happened on the night he's alleged to have stolen 15
bricks of a substance believed to have been cocaine.

Cst. Warren Williams said Cook told him the next day that he
discovered the bricks in the trunk of his cruiser and had taken them
home. He was going to take them back to the morality squad the next day.

"Mistakes happen. Then they get corrected," said Williams, who was
with Cook when he and other officers found what they believed to be
102 bricks of suspected cocaine hidden in boxes of mangoes in a
courier delivery truck.

The drugs turned out to be white flour, part of an RCMP-controlled
delivery from Peru to Canada that went missing 12 hours earlier after
arriving at Pearson International Airport.

Cook's lawyer, Pat Ducharme, has suggested his client was surprised
when he found the bricks in the trunk of his cruiser about four hours
later in the early hours of Nov. 17. He suggested Cook's boss, Det.
Marty Rykhoff, told him to take it home and secure it and that he
would pick it up the next day but he didn't.

Williams denied ever seeing the bricks in Cook's cruiser, only that
Cook told him the bricks were at his Cambridge home.

"He was going to take it back to Morality," Williams said. "I
believed him. I didn't ask him any questions. I wished I had."

Two days later, Cook was arrested.

RCMP investigators used a GPS signal hidden among the missing fake
drugs to find them in a compartment in a Sea-Doo in a garage at Cook's home.

A search warrant also uncovered marijuana and several MP3 players
allegedly taken from an unrelated investigation.

Federal prosecutors David Rowcliffe and Ania Weiler say Cook, a
14-year veteran, took the drugs, which he believed were real, during
his involvement as part of Rykhoff's crew probing the drug seizure.

Cook is charged with attempt to possess a controlled substance for
the purpose of trafficking, possession of marijuana for the purpose
of trafficking, possession of stolen property (MP3 players) from a
police investigation and breach of trust as a police officer. He
remains suspended with pay.