OFFICER BACKED CAR SALESMAN

Put `reputation on the line' at licensing appeal Constable one of four
facing charges under police act

Nick Morris, the latest Toronto police officer to be charged under the
Police Services Act for his ties to a cocaine-addicted car salesman
named Jeff Geller, staked his professional reputation on his friend's
good character during a public hearing last year.

"I'm proud to say my record, my file, as a police officer, I don't
have any blemishes. None," Morris said in testimony during a licensing
appeal hearing. Geller was attempting to have his stripped licence to
sell cars restored.

"Not once have I done anything wrong. I would not be sitting here
right now putting my character, my reputation on the line if I didn't
believe in Mr. Geller."

On Thursday, police charged Constable Morris with discreditable
conduct and insubordination. He is to appear before the tribunal next
Wednesday.

Morris was one of three Toronto police officers, along with Michael
McCormack and Michael Thompson, who testified in the hearing on behalf
of Geller. Geller, a car salesman with a $1,000-a-day cocaine habit
and ties to organize crime, died of a drug overdose in March.

McCormack and Thompson, along with another officer, Robert Correa,
were all charged in early April with a total of 14 offences under the
Police Services Act.

Vouching for Geller at the hearing, Morris said he'd known the car
salesman for about five years and called him "a good man" despite his
drug addiction, ties to organized crime and conviction for car theft
that lost him his licence to sell cars in 2002.

Asked if he was appearing at the hearing as a police officer or a
friend of Geller, Morris replied, "both."

"Jeff would give you his last dollar if he had it," Morris testified.

"I personally don't think Jeff had a bad bone in his body."

Asked at the hearing if he was aware of Geller's drug problems, Morris
said he was.

"As far as I understand, Jeff was big time into the drugs."

He also testified that he was aware of Geller's conviction for car
theft. But none of that tainted his opinion of his friend, he said.

"Any supposedly (sic) crime that Jeff has supposedly committed, I
personally don't believe he has," Morris said.

"I personally believe that anything that happened during the time of
Jeff's (drug) abuse, Jeff didn't know what was going on."

Morris also testified that Geller had a personal relationship with him
and his family.

"Prior to the drug abuse, Jeff had met my family and we've gone out.
And now ... after the post-drug abuse, still, the same way."

Morris said he had already bought two cars from Geller and was waiting
for his friend's licence to be renewed so he could buy another.

"When I first met Mr. Geller, he impressed me," Morris said. "He was
on top of everything ... He had everybody under him under control."

That changed, Morris testified, as Geller became involved in drugs.

"I remember one day going up to him and saying, quite bluntly, `What
the hell are you doing? You're ruining your life,'" he said. "It was
too late."

He said Geller denied his drug addiction at the time.

But Morris wasn't surprised.

"In my experiences, all drug users deny it."