EX-ARGO SUES PEEL POLICE OVER ARREST

Lawsuit Seeking $14.6-Million Claims Man Was Beaten, Falsely Accused
of Drug Trafficking Because He Is Black

It was bad enough to be beaten and kicked by police, framed for
cocaine possession, jailed overnight and denied medical help and
access to a lawyer, as former Toronto Argonaut linebacker Oreth
(Orlando) Bowen alleged yesterday in a statement of claim launching a
multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

Equally painful, Mr. Bowen says, is his reluctant conclusion, also
specified in his lawsuit, that a violent encounter two years ago with
two Peel Regional Police officers -- one of whom now faces far more
serious cocaine charges -- outside a Mississauga strip club stemmed
from the fact he is black.

But what really hurts, he says, is the fact that before his
career-wrecking arrest he was actively working with that same police
force -- speaking in schools, urging students to support law
enforcement, offering guidance to police officers about racial
sensitivities.

"It's not pleasant to be here . . . after all the work that we've done
to bridge the gaps and to make the community safer," Mr. Bowen told a
news conference at the midtown office of his lawyer, Julian Falconer,
where graphic photographs taken after his arrest showed the
29-year-old former football star with puffed-up eyes and a gaping
wound in the centre of his forehead.

"But there has to be some kind of accountability; things have to
change."

Arrested in March of 2004, Mr. Bowen was charged with cocaine
possession and assaulting police, accusations he says earned him
widespread opprobrium among local parents, whose view of him changed
overnight from athletic icon to drug dealer.

In December, the case collapsed after one of the two officers who
arrested Mr. Bowen, Constable Sheldon Cook, was charged with
possessing 15 kilograms of cocaine for the purpose of
trafficking.

A tracking device attached to the shipment (which wasn't cocaine at
all, Constable Cook's lawyer says) led RCMP to the officer's home in
Cambridge.

Since then, at least a half-dozen unrelated sets of drug charges in
which Constable Cook was the arresting officer have been dropped.

But in all likelihood, the case against Mr. Bowen would have failed
anyway.

In acquitting him on all counts, before even hearing evidence from the
defence, Mr. Justice S. Ford Clements of the Ontario Court of Justice
in Brampton said he found the testimony of Constable Cook and his
partner, Constable Grant Gervais, to be "incredible and not worthy of
belief."

At yesterday's news conference, Mr. Bowen's trial lawyer, David
Humphrey, said the "fundamentally inconsistent stories and glaring
inconsistencies," in the officers' evidence had left him confident Mr.
Bowen would be vindicated.

But in the meantime, Mr. Bowen says, the injuries resulting from his
arrest -- headaches, dizzy spells, pain in his ribs -- have left his
finances in ruin and his career prospects at best uncertain, because
he is no longer able to train.

"Losing my ability to provide for my family, that's an incredible
thing," he said, a small scar from his head injury still visible.

"To have your wife call you and say she was at the grocery store and
there wasn't enough money in the account . . . "

A father of two young sons, the former Argonaut has since made a
living through offering football training, running an Oakville sports
camp, acting and doing research for local school boards.

Hence the $14.6-million lawsuit, filed Wednesday, which along with
Constable Cook and Constable Gervais, names six other Peel Regional
officers (two unidentified), the Police Services Board and now-retired
chief Noel Catney.

None of the allegations, which accuse police of racism, assault,
malicious prosecution and planting the 1.7 grams of cocaine supposedly
found in Mr. Bowen's car, have been proved in court.

A brief statement from Peel Police's new Chief, Mike Metcalf, said his
office is aware of Mr. Bowen's suit but has no further comment.

Mr. Falconer, spearheading the suit, said the circumstances comprise
"a grave injustice. . . . Those officers were sworn to uphold the law,
not break it. No person in this country should have to undergo the
beating, mistreatment and prosecution this man went through because of
the colour of his skin."

As for Constable Cook, suspended with pay as a result of drug and
breach-of-trust charges against him, things are not as they seem, his
lawyer, Alan Gold, says.

Mr. Gold could not be immediately reached. But in remarks published
last month, he said the cocaine allegedly traced to his client's home
in November wasn't cocaine, but flour that the RCMP was deploying in a
sting operation.

In essence, the arrest stemmed from a controlled drug-delivery that
went wrong, Mr. Gold told the Mississauga News, saying he was left
wondering how someone can be prosecuted on drug charges when no
illegal drugs are found.