FORMER CHIEF'S SON FACING CHARGES

Four Allegations Under Police Act

Union Exec Wants Him To Step Down

Toronto police Constable Mike McCormack has been charged with four
counts of misconduct under the Police Services Act, the Star has learned.

The charges Saturday prompted the Toronto Police Association to demand
that McCormack -- one of four children of former Toronto police Chief
William McCormack in the force -- step down by tomorrow as a director
and the association's uniform administrative services
representative.

Among the police act charges against McCormack, according to a source,
is his failure to complete the necessary paperwork in connection with
his appearance a year ago at a licence suspension hearing for auto
dealer Allan Geller, who was appealing to the Ontario Motor Vehicle
Industry Council to have his salesman's licence reinstated.

McCormack's failure to complete internal police paperwork, known as a
Form 6-49, isn't all that unusual, the source noted.

"A lot of coppers forget, while some just don't bother to do that bit
of paperwork."

McCormack, who spent much of his career as a police officer battling
drug dealers on the streets of the Regent Park housing project, has
told friends and colleagues he has no intention of stepping down from
his union duties.

It's believed to be the first time a Toronto police union official has
been charged.

It raises the question of whether the force still has jurisdiction to
lay disciplinary charges against members in what is arguably the
country's most outspoken police association.

The police union argues that once officers are elected to the union
executive, they are no longer active police officers and are, at most,
officers on leave. As a result, the union insists it's not governed by
the same internal disciplinary rules that govern officers on active
duty. As union officials, the officers are paid from union dues, and
not by the force. Union officials traditionally turn in their guns and
badges when they are elected.

The relationship between McCormack and Geller was being looked at as
part of the same probe that recently led Rick McIntosh, head of the
7,000-member union, to step down pending results of the investigation
into allegations that Toronto police officers had ties to mobsters.
McCormack's brother, Bill, was suspended with pay earlier this month
over allegations of his involvement in shakedowns in the downtown
entertainment district.

Now the latest member of the McCormack clan to fall under a cloud of
suspicion has told friends that he plans to be at his desk in the
association office, on Yorklands Blvd. in North York, this morning.
Other members of the association -- the largest and most powerful
municipal police union in the country -- have been quoted in media
reports as saying McCormack should step down until the internal
charges are resolved.

"All the allegations against Mike are of a non-criminal nature," said
one source, who didn't want his name used. "He was subpoenaed to
testify at a hearing involving a man with a criminal background. He
told his unit commander that he had to go, as was required by the law.
He had no choice."

McCormack had been subpoenaed to testify at the April, 2003, licence
hearing for Geller -- who died of a drug overdose in March -- after he
was subpoenaed by Geller's lawyer.

The officer told the hearing that he was aware that Geller had a
cocaine problem and that Geller had ties with organized crime figures.
But, the source added, McCormack believed Geller was being victimized
by organized crime members.

McCormack went on to testify that if Geller could turn his life around
and get off drugs, then he would consider buying a car from him, said
the source.

"Should a police officer have said that?" asked the source.

"That will be one of the areas of contention when this goes to the
police tribunal."

Mike McCormack is widely known among his colleagues as a dedicated
officer with a passionate belief in the job that he learned from his
father, Toronto's police chief from 1989 to 1995.

Mike McCormack worked out of 51 Division, primarily in Regent Park,
before being elected to the union last fall. In the latest issue of
Tour of Duty, the police association magazine, he talked about the
importance of police officers getting involved in the community to
help solve crime-related problems, such as shootings.

"We made Regent Park a bit better than it was," he wrote, going on to
say that the management at 51 Division stood behind the officers and
what they were trying to do.

"We knew we were going to get complaints," he wrote, "but our
management ... allowed us to do our job."

Acquaintances said Mike McCormack, like his father before him, has a
fierce loyalty to the job and to his colleagues.

When former police union head Craig Bromell and eight other officers
from 51 Division were accused of beating up Thomas Kerr, a group of
fellow officers organized what has come to be known as FiteNite, an
annual night of boxing with the proceeds going to charity. It was
intended to boost morale at the station but has since turned into
perhaps the biggest social evening for local police officers.

McCormack was one of the organizers, and an MC at this year's event,
where the funds that were raised will help sponsor two students from
Regent Park to go to university.

"Mike's a fighter," said a friend. "He's not going to back down from
anything."

A civil suit over the Kerr beating against Bromell and the other
officers was eventually settled out of court. The financial terms were
never disclosed.