OFFICER GUILTY OF COCAINE CHARGES

Toronto Drug Squad Constable Became Addicted To Narcotic

Many Police Colleagues Want Him To Get A Second Chance

The stakes were high in a takedown one November evening two years ago
outside the Kool Kats bar in Brampton.

The special police task force was going after one of its own, Toronto
Constable Robert William Kelly, a veteran undercover drug squad officer who
had supposedly "gone bad."

It was the first arrest by the much-touted RCMP-led squad of 25 officers set
up by Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino to hunt for corruption among the
force's drug squads.

The allegations against the highly decorated officer were damning: He had
become a cocaine addict, using the drug while on duty, and supplying the
illicit narcotic to a police agent.

Three other officers in Kelly's unit, the northwest field command, were also
allegedly snorting cocaine.

But there was more.

Accusations were made that Kelly was placing bets through a bookie on horse
races that were allegedly fixed, earning tens of thousands of dollars in
illegal gambling profits.

If the officers who sneaked up on Kelly's car that evening in 2001 were
expecting a fight from the muscular officer when they smashed open the
driver's window and dragged him out, they didn't get one.

From the moment he was arrested, Kelly owned up to his sins. Yesterday in a
Brampton courtroom, the 36-year-old officer pleaded guilty to two charges of
possessing a total of 3.15 grams of cocaine.

In a brief interview afterward, Kelly acknowledged his addiction to the
narcotic and his subsequent rehabilitation.

"I leave court today with my head held high knowing I have beaten a serious,
seductive illness," he said.

Four days have been set aside for his sentencing hearing later this year.

Kelly still faces a police tribunal on the allegations against him, and will
have to fight hard to keep his job. He's been suspended with pay since his
arrest.

There's no argument from Kelly that he crossed the line, bringing shame to
the uniform of the Toronto Police Service.

"Officer Kelly was always prepared to take responsibility for his actions,
and he did so by pleading guilty," his lawyer, Peter Brauti, said in a later
interview.

"He gained an addiction on the job, which was related to his service with
the drug squad. He should not be punished for more than what is just or
reasonable."

While Kelly got nabbed fair and square by the task force, his colleagues
say, a groundswell of support is building on the force for the disgraced
officer. They say he deserves a second chance.

In interviews with colleagues, and according to testimony at his preliminary
hearing, along with police and court documents, a picture is emerging of an
officer who recognized he was in trouble and tried to reach out for help.

Dozens of officers have already volunteered to testify on Kelly's behalf at
the sentencing hearing.

"Rob was always there for everybody else, so it's only right that we support
him now," said one colleague, who didn't want to be named.

Although Kelly broke the law, his case falls in the gray area of what
happens to some drug-squad officers who get in too deep and stay too long,
say other officers.

Chief among his backers is Craig Bromell, the head of the police
association.

"He's an officer who has done an outstanding job for the service in a very
high-level, stressful position. We've had many calls of support," Bromell
said.

Long before his arrest, Kelly realized the job was affecting him, and tried
to get out of the unit after working undercover for more than six years,
said police sources.

The 15-year veteran had gone through several life-altering crises: He had a
shotgun pointed at his head, a friend and colleague had been shot making an
arrest, and his father died.

Kelly worked in 31 Division, primarily in the crime-plagued Jane and Finch
corridor, where his service record was impeccable -- 25 citations for
"outstanding work."

One commendation said he showed "bravery and courage in the highest
tradition of the force" arresting an armed bandit.

Three times, Kelly applied for a transfer out of the northwest drug squad
and three times he was turned down.

"He was a good street copper bringing in the numbers (arrests), and they
didn't want to lose him," another officer said.

So Kelly stayed with the unit, and his addiction to cocaine worsened.

It was during a preliminary hearing, and at yesterday's guilty plea, that
details of Kelly's gambling were revealed.

Kelly took over the handling of a police agent and the two became friends,
sharing cocaine, prosecutor John North told the court, reading from an
agreed statement of facts.

The agent claimed to have "inside information" on fixed horse races and
offered to place the bets through a bookie on races at such tracks as
Woodbine and Mohawk, Detective Cam Durham, an investigator with the task
force, testified during the preliminary hearing.

From an original bet of $2,000, Kelly let his winnings pile up until he had
won $25,000, the hearing was told.

But when the agent never paid Kelly any of his supposed winnings, the two
had a dispute and the agent went to the internal affairs unit, North told
the court.

In an intercepted phone call, Kelly told the agent he had "a little
surprise" for him, a reference to the cocaine he was supplying the agent,
North said.

Kelly then asked the agent if he had any surprises for him, referring to the
money he was owed on the gambling debt, North said.

It was during the investigation that the agent claimed he was snorting
cocaine with three other officers from the northwest drug unit, and getting
drugs from one of them, the hearing was told.

Those officers were investigated, but no charges were laid.

As the court case neared, the agent worried about testifying, fearful about
death threats from the underworld if it was learned he was a police snitch.

He had also been convicted of fraud, arson, theft and assault, a criminal
record that would hurt his credibility on the stand.

One of his earlier fraud convictions was eerily similar to the Kelly case.
He had duped other people into betting on horse races that were supposedly
fixed, but just spent their money.

Kelly was never charged over his gambling activity.

A year earlier, he had tried to plead guilty on the cocaine charges, but a
pre-arranged deal with the crown was inexplicably pulled from the table by
federal prosecutors -- leading to the preliminary.

Rumours abounded through the force that the deal was yanked because of
political pressure -- Kelly was the first person charged by the task force
and an example had to be made.

But Jim Leising, the head of federal crown prosecutors for Toronto, said the
force supported the deal.

Leising said he scrapped the original deal because he felt it wasn't
"appropriate," but then later agreed to it after learning that the agent
might not make a good witness against Kelly.