POLICE SETTLE WITH FAMILY WHO SUED OVER DRUG RAID

At Least Seven Lawsuits Filed Against Squad

The Toronto Police Services Board has agreed to pay $50,000 in damages
to a Vietnamese woman and her two young sons, who say they were
terrorized by several drug squad officers in a February, 1999, raid.

Phan Ni Pham and her two sons also received a formal apology from a
senior member of the Toronto police force as a condition of the
settlement. The police services board agreed to pay the family's legal
costs in the civil suit, which was launched more than four years ago.

At least seven lawsuits seeking almost $20-million in damages have
been filed against members of the now disbanded Central Field Command
drug squad.

The lawsuits accuse several Toronto police officers of theft, assault
and kidnapping during drug investigations in the late 1990s.

The police services board, the civilian body that oversees the Toronto
police force, has now settled three of the lawsuits connected to the
drug squad.

A $750,000 civil suit filed by a Vietnamese restaurant owner, who
claimed he was robbed and assaulted along with his wife and daughter
during a police raid, was resolved last year. Simon Yeung, a convicted
heroin trafficker who was released halfway through a four-year prison
sentence in July, 2001, because of what the Ontario Court of Appeal
referred to as a miscarriage of justice, also resolved his lawsuit
last year.

The police services board has refused to make public any details of
these settlements, although Mr. Yeung is believed to have received a
six-figure payment, according to a source familiar with the case. The
evidence that led to Mr. Yeung's release from prison remains sealed by
order of the Court of Appeal.

A spokesman for Gloria Lindsay-Luby, acting chairwoman of the police
services board, said she had no comment on any of the settlements,
including the Pham case.

At least six officers broke down the front door and ransacked the
Bathurst Street apartment where the Pham family lived in the Feb. 10,
1999, raid, according to the statement of claim filed in Ontario
Superior Court.

Drug squad officers had obtained 12 search warrants that day, in
pursuit of a suspected drug trafficker who had allegedly hidden heroin
in the Phams' apartment.

Police did not find any drugs in the apartment, and Ms. Pham, who
recently became a Canadian citizen, alleged that the officers were
abusive and refused to show her the search warrant. Despite the lack
of evidence, Ms. Pham and her 12-year-old son were arrested, placed in
separate jail cells, "strip-searched and vigorously interrogated," the
court documents claimed.

The officers refused to allow Ms. Pham to contact a babysitter for her
five-year-old son, and police allegedly called the Children's Aid
Society to take custody of both boys.

The 12-year-old son was released from jail several hours after his
arrest.

Ms. Pham was released the next morning. No criminal charges were ever
laid against the family.

"The way the officers acted was totally inappropriate," said lawyer
Bill McMurtry, who represented the family in the civil suit. "They
just assumed she was guilty.

"The worst part of this whole thing was the potential emotional
scarring," observed Mr. McMurtry.

The lawyer described the settlement as fair and said it was never
about money. He praised Superintendent Ed Hoey, who apologized to the
family on behalf of the Toronto force during a mediation session this
summer in front of a retired judge. "He was very sincere," Mr.
McMurtry said of Supt. Hoey's apology, which included a statement to
the sons that explained that their mother had done nothing wrong.

The allegations made by the Phams were never proven in court, but in a
statement of defence filed by the police, they denied being abusive or
strip-searching the 12-year-old son.