CHARGES DETAIL ABUSES AT TORONTO POLICE UNIT

TORONTO -- The Toronto Police 52 Division plainclothes unit was
allegedly a veritable cesspool in which officers covered for one
another when they skipped out on work or scheduled court appearances,
ran police computer checks and did other favours for friends, and
accepted free meals and drinks at the bars that they were supposed to
inspect in the downtown entertainment district.

These detailed allegations, released yesterday, are contained in 55
charges laid this week under the provincial Police Services Act
against nine officers, most of them former members of the
now-disbanded plainclothes office.

Police act charges, though less serious than criminal charges, carry
penalties that range from a verbal reprimand to dismissal.

While 23 of the unproven allegations -- and easily the most serious of
them -- relate to Billy McCormack Jr., the son of the former Toronto
chief, what is stunningly clear is that more than half of the former
members of the unit allegedly were if not actively involved in the
misconduct themselves at least tacitly condoning it.

Most grievously, Mr. McCormack is accused of failing to investigate
alleged sexual assaults on female bar employees, attempting to broker
a fee for settling a lawsuit involving a downtown bar and potentially
putting fellow officers' lives at risk by divulging in advance a
planned drug-squad raid at a bar.

All three allegations are captured under the rubric of "misconduct" in
the police act charges.

Of a small office of 12 officers and two supervisors -- the entire
group was suddenly reassigned on the evening of April 15 on the
personal orders of Police Chief Julian Fantino and is now in the
process of being rebuilt -- six former plainclothes officers and one
plainclothes supervisor are now facing police act charges that range
from deceit and neglect of duty to discreditable conduct and corrupt
practice.

The accused plainclothes officers are Constables McCormack, Ricardo
Clayton, Dean Ion, Simon Knott and two other officers who can't be
named until they have been formally notified of the charges against
them.

The accused 51 Division supervisor is Detective Brian Berger, who
faces three counts of deceit and four of neglect. Most of the charges
against Det. Berger relate to his allegedly signing in for work, and
getting paid, while he was not on the job or fraudulently signing in
Constable McCormack.

Det. Berger is also accused of "a failure to supervise with proper
diligence" an unspecified number of those who allegedly committed acts
of misconduct at work.

In addition, Constable McCormack's spouse, Jodie Watson, a constable
with the 52 Division fraud squad office, faces two insubordination
charges and one of corrupt practice, while a supervisor with adjacent
51 Division, Detective Hugh Wong, is accused of corrupt practice in
connection with allegedly trying to delay a liquor licence matter.

The latter charge, and one of the many against Constable McCormack,
appear to centre around a newly opened bar called Lotus, one of whose
owners was 54 Division Constable George Kouroudis.

According to the documents released yesterday, Constable Kouroudis,
who is facing police act charges of his own in connection with his
interest in Lotus, asked Constable McCormack for advice on how to
"dispose" of his charges and the sale of his interest in the bar.

It appears that the corrupt-practice charge against Det. Wong may be
potentially related to Lotus, too, because he is charged with
requesting a delay in a liquor licence hearing for an unnamed licensed
establishment to "assist in the sale of the premises."

According to the report, Constable Watson, Constable McCormack, and
"others you had invited attended at licensed establishments within 52
Division. Investigation has revealed that neither you, nor the others
with you, paid for the food and drink you consumed. . . . In so doing,
you placed yourself under a pecuniary or other obligation to a
licensee concerning the granting or refusing of whose licence a member
of the Service may have to report or give evidence."

Constable McCormack is one of two officers already facing a slew of
criminal charges in connection with an alleged kickback scheme in the
downtown bar district.

The other is former police union boss Rick McIntosh, who recently
resigned his union post because of the allegations against him.

Constable Watson is also charged criminally, but only with
firearms-related offences.

Constable McCormack and Mr. McIntosh allegedly first came to police
attention via a lengthy Royal Canadian Mounted Police-led joint forces
investigation of organized crime.

Hints of a potential nexus to that larger probe appear to be contained
in the new charges, with Constables McCormack and Knott accused of
misconduct for allegedly attending the Woodbine Casino in the city's
north end while they were supposed to be on duty and also attending
"the Township of Ramara" while they should have been working.

Ramara Township is near Orillia, about an hour north of Toronto, and
encompasses Casino Rama.

There are also veiled references to other unnamed shadowy figures,
including one who is described as "an individual who represents
persons who have an interest in various licensed establishments;" a
man who is identified only as "a citizen . . . who had committed
sexual assaults" on the female bar employees; a person described as
"an individual" with "an interest in a lawsuit," and an unidentified
individual for whom Constable McCormack allegedly ran a Canadian
Police Information Computer check about someone else.

According to the documents, when police executed a criminal search
warrant on the McCormack-Watson home, they discovered CPIC printouts
and other confidential criminal records information.

Many of the dozens of new charges appear on their face to be minor --
Constable McCormack, for instance, is accused of using offensive
language for calling a female supervisor "this real diesel dyke," and
he and others are accused of altering their official memo books and
unit sign-in sheets to show they were on duty when they weren't.

However, taken in total, their sweeping nature paints a disturbing
picture of a unit that was effectively out of control, and operating
as a world unto its own.

The alleged misconduct also managed to spread from its purported core
at 52 Division to involve officers of at least two other divisions --
Constable Kouroudis at 54 Division and Det. Wong at 51 Division. And
at least four officers -- Constables McCormack and Watson, Det. Wong
and one of the unnamed plainclothes constables -- are charged with the
serious corrupt-practice offence.

All are slated to make their first appearance on the new charges at
police headquarters on Sept. 23.

Recently, Chief Fantino appointed Detective-Sergeant Mike Davis, a
veteran homicide investigator with a sterling reputation, to rebuild
the plainclothes office from the ground up. But it is only with the
details released yesterday that the pressing need to do that is clear
- -- and the danger of one bad apple, or a handful, evident.