COKE HABIT TRIAL PAUSES

Prosecutor Wants Cop To Testify

BRAMPTON -- Up to seven experts are set to testify about Toronto Police
detective Robert Kelly's cocaine addiction because his defence doesn't want
him to testify, a prosecutor said yesterday. After the first of seven
doctors told Ontario Court Justice Ian Cowan yesterday that Kelly developed
an on-the-job addiction while working undercover, federal prosecutor John
North asked the judge to ban their evidence unless Kelly takes the stand.

"This is a device employed by the defence to keep the best evidence
available from being subjected to reasonable scrutiny," North said in the
middle of an unusual voir dire hearing.

North said the onus should be on Kelly to prove that his cocaine addiction
is a mitigating factor in his upcoming sentence.

Kelly, 37, a highly respected 14-year Toronto Police veteran, pleaded
guilty to two counts of cocaine possession this summer after an underworld
informant set up an RCMP drug sting on Kelly.

Charges Dropped

Kelly, who served six years as an undercover officer with the North West
Field Command drug squad, admitted in an agreed statement of facts to
providing the informant with cocaine.

But two counts of possession of cocaine for the purposes of trafficking
were withdrawn upon the guilty pleas to possession.

Sentencing submissions continue today.

Prosecutors are seeking six months of combined house arrest and curfew
followed by community service and probation.