LENGTHY JAIL TERM FOR PEEL OFFICER WHO STOLE FAKE COCAINE

Suspended Peel Police officer Sheldon Cook was sent to prison for more
than five years Friday for several criminal convictions, including
stealing fake cocaine from a botched RCMP sting.

Sheldon Cook, 43, removed his belt and tie and handed them to a
relative before being led away from a Brampton courtroom.

Justice Casey Hill sentenced Cook, a 19-year veteran officer, to a
prison sentence of five years and eight months. He had no previous
police discipline history or criminal record.

Hill dismissed a federal Crown's application to seize his financial
interest in his Cambridge home under an offence of conviction
application.

On June 23, Hill convicted Cook of numerous offences, including some
related to the disappearance of fake cocaine that was being used in an
RCMP drug sting. He was convicted of unlawfully attempting to possess
an illegal substance for the purpose of trafficking, breach of trust,
unlawful possession of stolen property and possession of marijuana.

Hill believed Cook was driven by "greed." The drugs would have been
worth between $315,000 and $540,000 had they been real, Hill said.

He committed a "serious breach of public trust" while on duty and his
action risked the reputation and trust of the entire force.

"Police officers ... occupy a special position of trust in the
community," Hill said in his judgment.

Crown prosecutors David Rowcliffe and Anya Weiler sought a 12-year
prison sentence. Defence lawyer Patrick Ducharme asked for two years
in a penitentiary.

Using a GPS tracking device, the RCMP found 15 bricks of a missing
shipment of dummy cocaine inside a personal watercraft in his garage
in November 2005.

Cook maintained his innocence throughout the trial, insisting he was
set up by other officers. He knew the bricks of cocaine were fake and
said he was ordered by superiors to take them to his house.

In a 141-page judgment in June, Hill criticized two of Cook's
superiors for their roles on and after the night of Nov. 16, 2005 and
during the judge-alone trial, which began in November 2008.

Last week, Const. Warren Williams was arrested and charged with
perjury and obstruct justice in connection with his testimony at
Cook's trial and the subsequent RCMP investigation into the missing
fake drugs. Det. Marty Rykhoff remains under investigation.

Hill believed Cook and others thought the cocaine hidden inside
mangoes boxes taken from a courier van on Nov. 16, 2005 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.