OFFICER SPARED JAIL WITH GUILTY PLEA

BRAMPTON -- A Toronto Police officer who faces charges in the
drug-squad scandal was yesterday spared jail in an Orangeville case
after prosecutors dropped sex assault, beating, weapons and drugs
charges as part of a plea deal.

Ned Maodus, 44, was given a conditional sentence in the Orangeville
case after pleading guilty to assault causing bodily harm,
threatening and pointing a firearm.

The guilty plea related to a series of March, 2002, allegations by an
Orangeville woman, whose identity cannot be revealed because of a
court-ordered publication ban.

Accepting a joint submission from Crown Attorney Mary Ellen Cullen
and defence lawyer Peter Brauti, Ontario Superior Court Justice Bruce
Durno sentenced Mr. Maodus to one year of house arrest in Windsor,
followed by one year of overnight curfew.

For the first year of the sentence, Mr. Maodus can leave his Windsor
home only to meet lawyers, attend court or police tribunals, go to
counselling sessions, attend medical appointments for himself and his
ailing mother, or go on a weekly shopping trip.

In the second year, Mr. Maodus must be at his home between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.

In submissions, Mr. Brauti noted that Mr. Maodus did not have any
prior criminal convictions and had many police commendations.

Mr. Maodus's actions, Mr. Brauti said, resulted from "serious
mental-health issues" related to his work as a police officer. Mr.
Brauti noted that Mr. Maodus had attended 528 counselling sessions
with a psychologist in the past five years.

Four counts of sexual assault and two of assault causing bodily harm
were withdrawn.

As anticipated, prosecutors also withdrew related drugs and weapons
charges yesterday, on the strength of an earlier court ruling that
evidence from a series of searches at Mr. Maodus's Orangeville home
was inadmissible because his rights were violated.

Among the inadmissible evidence are 3.5 grams of heroin, 45.5 grams
of cocaine and four ecstasy tablets that police allege were found on
Mr. Maodus's property. It was also alleged that Mr. Maodus had a
prohibited Glock handgun, butterfly knives and brass knuckles and had
carelessly stored a .357 Magnum revolver and a shotgun.

The plea bargain suggests that prosecutors will face an uphill
struggle in the trial of Mr. Maodus and five former drug squad cops
on allegations that drugs and cash were stolen from drug suspects.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Maodus was freed from pretrial detention custody
in an unrelated assault trial in Windsor after an ex-girlfriend
testified she falsely accused him of beating her.

Mr. Maodus became the first Toronto Police officer to be suspended
without pay in the spring after Marcia Polczynski, a 37-year-old
Michigan nurse, told Windsor police that he had dropped on her body
like a "cannonball," beat her, held a knife to her throat and threatened her.

Leading up to that suspension, Mr. Maodus had been facing the
drug-squad charges, both sex and assault charges and drugs and
weapons charges in Orangeville, road rage allegations in London,
assaulting a police officer in Windsor, perjury in Toronto, and
soliciting a prostitute and breach of conditions in Toronto. All that
remain are the drug-squad case, the soliciting charge and breach of conditions.

As Mr. Maodus was sentenced yesterday, Ms. Polczynski looked on. Only
weeks ago, she testified that she gave a false statement to Windsor
police in March due to nightmares and flashbacks that stem from a
disassociative and multiple personality disorder. She also said that
she had invited Mr. Maodus to continue with their plans to have "a family."

The trial judge likened her "spectacular" testimony to "a novel, or
television series."

Mr. Maodus and Ms. Polczynski left court yesterday hand in hand.