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executive, they are no longer active police officers and are, at most,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.