CROWN WITNESS ACCUSED OF LYING IN TRIAL OF FOUR TORONTO COPS

TORONTO - A part-time pot dealer who alleged police brutalized him was
accused of lying about putting money from an insurance settlement into
a safety deposit box containing drug proceeds.

Defence lawyer John Rosen suggested to witness Christopher Quigley
Wednesday that his account of mixing $38,500 in insurance cash with
the profits of his pot sales was pure fiction.

Rosen suggested Quigley wouldn't have mingled his "legitimate"
insurance cash - collected after he lost an expensive ring - with
"dirty money," instead of putting it into a bank account where the
currency was safe from police seizure.

"I'll put to you that the story of the $38,500 cheque being deposited,
as false as it is, is as false as the rest of your story," Rosen asserted.

"I'm not going to agree with you," replied Quigley.

The 46-year-old jewelry broker had earlier testified that he feared
for his life as members of an elite group of Toronto drug squad
officers "pulverized" him in an unprovoked beating inside an
interrogation room at 53 Division on April 30, 1998.

It was the opening day of cross-examination by Rosen, who represents
John Schertzer, one of the five former members of Central Field Command.

Schertzer, 54, Steve Correia, 44, Ned Maodus, 48, Joseph Miched, 53,
and Raymond Pollard, 47, collectively face 29 charges - laid in
January 2004 - including obstructing justice, perjury, assault and
extortion related to their work between 1997 and 2002. Each has
pleaded not guilty to all the charges which are linked to drug investigations.

Quigley alleged the officer took an $8,000 sapphire, a $2,500 pair of
alligator cowboy boots and some $31,000 from his 61-year-old mom's
safety deposit box which contained almost $54,000.

Rosen accused the witness of urging his mother, Greeba, a retired
teacher, of writing a false note to police, stating there was $54,000
in her safety box.

"That's a lie," replied Quigley.

The trial continues Thursday.