TORONTO POLICE OFFICIAL INFORMED OF CHARGES

Toronto Police Association director Mike McCormack has been notified
that he will be facing four charges, including one of corrupt
practices, under the Police Services Act.

The charges, The Globe and Mail has learned, will relate to his
alleged connections to Jeffery Allan Geller, a deceased car salesman
who had a criminal record and a cocaine habit and who admitted to
links with organized crime.

In addition, sources said, Mr. McCormack remains under a criminal
probe by the Toronto Police internal affairs unit.

The 42-year-old is one of former Toronto police chief Bill McCormack's
two sons who are under investigation. The former chief retired in 1995.

About 10 days ago, Billy McCormack, Mike's older brother, was abruptly
suspended with pay from his duties as a plainclothes officer in the
downtown 52 Division, and the entire plainclothes unit disbanded the
same night.

Billy McCormack is alleged to have been involved in a protection
racket in which certain bars in the downtown entertainment district
paid police officers for tips on enforcement actions and help with
obtaining liquor licences and the like.

Mike McCormack was asked last week, in a hand-delivered letter signed
by all the remaining police association directors, to resign his post
as uniform services director by tomorrow. Board sources said yesterday
they have not received his response.

It is unclear what action, if any, the board will take if Mr.
McCormack refuses to budge, but he could be removed from office.

Eight days ago, association president Rick McIntosh temporarily
stepped aside after he was allegedly implicated in the same
bar-shakedown scheme in which Billy McCormack was suspended from duty.

At the time, Mr. McIntosh denied any wrongdoing, described the
allegations as rumour and said he was looking forward to clearing his
name.

The shocking allegations against Mr. McIntosh and Mike McCormack have
left other association directors on the small, nine-member board reeling.

The board's letter to Mr. McCormack came after The Globe revealed his
links to Mr. Geller, who died at 35 last month of a drug overdose.

Last year, Mr. McCormack and a Toronto Police constable, Rob Correa,
went to extraordinary lengths to try to get Mr. Geller his salesman's
licence back. Mr. McCormack, then a detective-constable working in 51
Division, appeared with two other Toronto officers, one of them in
uniform, at a provincial Licence Appeal Tribunal hearing to testify
formally on Mr. Geller's behalf.

After Mr. Geller was turned down there, Constable Correa continued to
press officials at the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council to
reinstate him, even telling them that Mr. Geller was a vital
"confidential informant" who was necessary to a large auto-theft
project being run by the force.

With Mr. Geller refused registration by OMVIC as of last June, he was
not allowed to sell cars in Ontario.

But in January, OMVIC inspectors on a routine visit to a north-end
dealership spotted lucrative cheques made out to Mr. Geller and a
numbered Ontario company.

That numbered company, Ontario government records show, was formed in
September last year - about the time Mr. McCormack would have been
campaigning for union office - listing Constable Correa as its
president and Mr. McCormack's wife, Elizabeth Martin, as its director.

According to a notice filed in February, Ms. Martin has since stepped
down.

A flurry of cheques, dated in November and December and made out to
Mr. Geller and the numbered company, ranged from $8,500 to as much as
$15,000 - amounts far in excess of regular commissions.

Sources said Mr. McCormack made no disclosure to the board of his
connections to Mr. Geller or to the numbered company, and that, in
essence, association members who voted for him were given a misleading
picture.

Acting on information from OMVIC, Toronto internal affairs began an
investigation of Mr. McCormack, which led to the Police Services Act
charges. Generally, penalties under the act may range from a reprimand
to dismissal.

In the larger probe in which Billy McCormack and Mr. McIntosh are
implicated, the general allegations are that officers were receiving
"protection money" in exchange for providing certain bars in the
downtown entertainment district with advance notice of enforcement
activities or with help in securing liquor licences.

Sources said criminal charges in that probe are pending against as
many as four officers.