DOWNTOWN POLICE SQUAD PROBED AS AT LEAST 115 DRUG CASES DROPPED

A Toronto man accused by police of dealing large amounts of the
illegal drug ecstasy has become the latest in a string of defendants
to leave the courts without their guilt or innocence determined.

Yesterday, an Ontario Superior Court judge found that there had been
an unreasonable delay in bringing Roman Paryniuk's case to trial.

The charges against him, first raised in March, 1999, were stayed as a
result.

Mr. Paryniuk's lawyer had used a novel defence in the case. He had
argued that the charges took too long to come to trial, and that his
client was entitled to police records about an investigation into
allegations of corruption against some of the officers that worked on
his case.

The Crown has dropped at least 115 cases involving hundreds of drug
suspects in the past few years, many of which involve officers who
worked on the same Toronto Police downtown drug squad that is now
being investigated.

The federal Justice Department refuses to give an official explanation
of why the cases have been dropped.

The Globe and Mail requested internal Justice Department
correspondence about the cases under access-to-information
legislation. This week, a file was received that was almost entirely
blanked out.

The only words showing were e-mail subject headers such as "cases
involving certain officers" or "suspect officers" or "police officers
under charges or investigation."

A high-ranking RCMP officer was called in last year to head an
internal Toronto Poice probe.

Mr. Paryniuk and his lawyer had unsuccessfully sought access to
records from that internal investigation and from the Justice Department.

In making an argument to get them, defence lawyer Edward Sapiano
outlined 10 other cases involving people who had been accused of
dealing drugs.

The Crown dropped each case suddenly, without explanation. It came as
a surprise to the suspects, especially to a jailed man who had pleaded
guilty and was halfway through a drug sentence when told he was free.

Several of these one-time suspects complained that they were
mistreated by drug officers during investigations, and some have sued
the Toronto Police Services Board.

Statements of claim filed by these one-time suspects allege that large
sums of money and other valuables were stolen from them during drug
investigations. Several claim that thousands, even hundreds of
thousands, of dollars in cash and valuables disappeared from bank
safety-deposit boxes.

Those allegations have never been proved, although one such claim was
settled out of court in the spring. It's terms were not disclosed.

A recent internal-affairs investigation by Toronto Police found no
evidence to support allegations of theft made by one-time drug suspects.

The separate probe of Toronto Police continues.