PEEL COP GUILTY IN FAKE COCAINE CASE

RCMP Drug Sting Went Awry

A Peel police officer has been found guilty of seven criminal charges
including some related to the disappearance of fake cocaine that was
being used in an RCMP drug sting.

Const. Sheldon Cook, 42, remains on bail ahead of a sentencing hearing
set for Aug. 5 in Brampton.

Cook was found guilty of unlawful attempt to possess an illegal
substance for the purpose of trafficking, three counts of breach of
trust, theft and unlawful possession of stolen property, and
possession of marijuana.

In a 141-page judgment released Wednesday, Justice Casey Hill also
criticized two of Cook's superiors for their roles on and in the days
after the night of Nov. 16, 2005 and during the lengthy trial.

Neither Det. Marty Rykhoff nor Const. Warren Williams was charged
criminally in connection with Cook's trial, but both were disciplined
under the Police Act. The Peel police internal affairs unit is still
considering whether other discipline is necessary.

Cook had pleaded not guilty in the judge-alone trial that started in
November 2008.

He maintained he knew the bricks of cocaine were fake, and that he had
been ordered by superiors to take them to his house.

Cook denied any wrongdoing when he took the stand last August,
insisting he would have never risked his career and home, or
jeopardized the lives of his wife and two children to suddenly turn
into a drug trafficker.

But Hill said Cook's testimony was "scripted and rehearsed," and
concluded that the lure of a big score was too much to turn down.

"The temptation of a million dollars of suspected and untraceable
cocaine can ruin an unblemished reputation and be too much to resist
for one person," Hill said.

Cook was in unlawful possession of what he believed to be suspected
cocaine although it was white flour, Hill said.

In the drug sting known as Project O'Caper, the Mounties arranged for
the purchase of 147 bricks of cocaine in Peru and replaced it with
white flour. When the fake shipment reached the Lima airport, one
brick was missing and 11 others had been replaced with concrete powder.

The project went completely off the rails when the fake cocaine
shipment, now hidden inside 88 boxes of mangoes, arrived at Pearson
International Airport on Nov. 16, 2005.

When the legitimate courier driver received a mysterious phone call
ordering him to drive the shipment to a deserted trucking yard, he
panicked and went to Peel police.

Hill believed Cook and others thought the cocaine taken that night was
real even though it was actually white flour and part of a controlled
shipment from Peru that was supposed to lead RCMP investigators to a
Canadian connection.

The 15 bricks later found by a GPS tracking device inside a personal
watercraft in Cook's garage were part of the 44 packages that
mysteriously vanished after Peel took control of the suspected drugs.
Another eight ripped-open bricks were also found in a dumpster. The
rest have never been located.

In his judgment, Hill described Rykhoff as an "unimpressive witness"
who lied during his testimony, noting the Crown later believed he was
involved with Cook in "skimming" a number of bricks of suspected
cocaine from "the bad guys' load."

Hill said Williams also misled the court and investigating officers
but felt he was driven by a "dangerous and warped code" of behaviour
to not tell on fellow officers.

He didn't believe Williams was involved in the conspiracy to steal any
of the packages of suspected cocaine.

Hill found no evidence to conclude Williams and Rykhoff colluded to
tailor their evidence to frame Cook, as defence lawyer Patrick
Ducharme maintained.

Crown prosecutors David Rowcliffe and Anya Weiler maintained Cook,
after realizing the drugs were fake, didn't have time to get rid of
the bricks before RCMP officers in bulletproof vests raided his home.
But they said Cook must have had a clever co-conspirator, namely
Rykhoff and perhaps even Williams.

During the raid on Cook's house, the Mounties also found a small
quantity of marijuana hidden in a box on the top of a storage shelf.
They also found 21 MP3 players, which they believed were stolen from
an unrelated Peel police investigation.

Cook insisted the MP3 players belonged to his brother, who bought them
at a Brampton flea market to be used as gifts for his real estate clients.

Cook also insisted the marijuana belonged to a tenant, who rented a
condo from his brother. The drug was found in a box being temporarily
stored in his garage.

As a result of Cook's arrest, the federal justice department decided
not to prosecute at least six drug cases involving Cook as the
arresting officer. A month after he was charged, a Peel judge
acquitted former Toronto Argonaut Orlando Bowen of drug charges and
assaulting police. The charges were laid by Cook and another officer.
Bowen alleged at his trial that Cook planted a small amount of cocaine
on him during his arrest.

A $14 million lawsuit filed by Bowen against Peel police and several
officers, including Cook, is still pending.