COP CHARGES EXPECTED

Six To Face Accusations After Massive RCMP Probe

Criminal charges were to be laid against six Toronto Police officers this
morning after a massive probe by an RCMP-led task force that has spanned
two years and cost more than $3 million. The Toronto Police Association was
advised by task force head RCMP Chief Supt. John Neily yesterday that six
of its officers were to show up at 32 Division station with lawyers this
morning.

Scores of Police Services Act charges covering the gamut of misconduct
offences and policy breaches will follow, sources say.

The six officers were all members of one of four teams of the now-defunct
Central Field Command drug squad.

"This was a team unto itself," said a source familiar with the team.

Prosecutors probed hundreds of cases and vast amounts of evidence exist,
but only those cases that met a high evidentiary threshold have been
selected for charges, sources said.

"This was hardly a witchhunt ... this was fair and objective," said a source.

The high threshold was believed necessary because of the difficulty of
prosecuting police.

Top-notch association lawyer Harry Black, the former director of Ontario's
Crown prosecutions office, is also known as a formidable foe. He is joined
by Gary Clewley and Andy McKay, an ex-cop who knows all about high-level
investigations.

But the association is concerned about the impact that a six-accused trial
will have on its funds.

Edward Sapiano, one of 10 lawyers whose complaints sparked the drug squad
probe now fears that a few cops will be made "scapegoats" for a much larger
problem.

"It will be a travesty of justice if (some) officers are prosecuted ... and
the justice system purports to have addressed all the issues," Sapiano said.

Three lawyers -- Sapiano, Peter Biro and Clayton Ruby -- have demanded
Premier Dalton McGuinty launch a public inquiry into what they say is the
institutionalized failure of the police bureaucracy and justice system to
detect and deal with alleged corruption.

But McGuinty refused, saying a public inquiry into the drug squad is not
the "proper way" to deal with those concerns.

McGuinty, however, envisages a civilian oversight body that has community
confidence and police respect.

Sapiano, Biro and Ruby continue to demand a public inquiry.

"My concern is that the allegations that have been made (against police)
clearly illustrate an organized exploitation of the criminal justice
system," Sapiano said.