TTC TO PAY FOR POT FULL OF GAFFES, JUDGE RULES

The TTC's efforts to uncover pot-smoking and drinking by its employees by
planting a teenaged undercover "investigator" blew up in its face when the
agent got high smoking up with workers, a judgment released yesterday said.
The gaffes were revealed in a civil trial for a fired Greenwood yard
worker, Michael Teskey, who earlier faced criminal charges following the
undercover investigation.

The criminal case was withdrawn. Teskey then sued the TTC, its private
investigation agency and the agent "PS" for $1 million, alleging malicious
prosecution and defamation.

Justice Janet Wilson wrote in a judgment that "malice has been proved by
the plaintiff against the TTC and they were reckless in the facts and
circumstances of this case."

Wilson gave the lawyers seven days to make submissions on damages.

Teskey was fired in July 1999, after 19-year-old PS alleged Tesky sold
grass on the job -- on a day he wasn't at work.

All the trial witnesses, except the pot-smoking agent and another
"equivocal witness" testified Teskey neither smoked nor sold grass.

Case Dismissed

The trafficking charges against the now 28-year-old Toronto man were
dismissed in February 2000 when the TTC failed to appear in court.

A civil jury ruled there was no reasonable cause for a criminal charge but
found no malice and awarded no damages.

Teskey's lawyers asked the judge to review the jury's decision. Wilson
ruled that finding of zero damages "is not supportable based upon what I
conclude is uncontradicted evidence."

The least the jury could have found for damages was for $2,140, the legal
fees owed to Teskey's criminal lawyer, Sam Boutzouvis, Wilson said.

PS, a first-time investigator, was employed by Aston Associates
Investigation Ltd. He posed as a TTC worker to gather evidence at the
Greenwood TTC repair facility in 1999.

The judge found the TTC vicariously liable for PS's wrongs.

"They hired him by his look. They failed to make inquiries with respect to
his experience and failed to question his use of marijuana prior to or
during the on-going investigation," Wilson wrote.