RAID WRONG: SUIT

Drug Warrant Info Bogus, Restaurant Owners Claim

A Toronto Police drug squad search of a Chinatown restaurant that allegedly
led to a $600,000 theft, was apparently approved without any direct links
between the restaurant and the heroin ring police were probing.

A series of undercover heroin buys and the travels of three main suspects
are carefully detailed in a 20-page affidavit supporting a Feb. 10, 1999
warrant application to search the Thy restaurant at 54 Grange St. While a
fourth suspect was linked to an apartment at 56 Grange St., the only
notation of the Thy on the supporting documentation for the search warrant
is that three drug suspects met there on two occasions.

Thy restaurant owners, Tuyen Vi Nguyen and his wife, Tuyet Thi Nguyen, and
their daughter Tania allege in civil court documents they had no
association with the man next door.

Heroin and opium possession and trafficking charges against Tuyen Vi Nguyen
and two patrons were stayed 10 months later.

LOSSES ALLEGED

The Nguyens allege in a civil court lawsuit they lost $100,000 in liquor,
cash and valuables after drug cops rushed into the Thy with guns drawn Feb.
10, 1999. The lawsuit claims that Tuyen Vi Nguyen's head was cut during the
raid and when Tania Nguyen asked for proof of a search warrant she was told
to "shut up" or sisters, Tina, 9, and Teresa, 21 months, would be sent to a
shelter.

The Nguyens allege the officers took $1,000 cash, beer, jewelry, cosmetics,
clothes and seven bottles of cognac from the Thy that day.

The Nguyens also allege $500,000 in "jewelry, precious coins, metals and
gems" disappeared from a bank safety deposit box two days later.

None of the Nguyens' allegations have been proven in court.

In a statement of defence to the Nguyen suit filed Aug. 17, 2001, the
officers said they had "reasonable and probable grounds" for Nguyen's
arrest, detention and charging.

The officers pleaded that "duly authorized and obtained search warrants"
were executed at 54 and 56 Grange and at the Bank of Nova Scotia at 292
Spadina Ave. Feb. 10-12, 1999.

The police say they acted in "good faith" and had "reasonable and probable
grounds to obtain and execute the warrants."

The officers denied the alleged valuables seizures took place and demanded
the Nguyens furnish proof. The Nguyen suit names 11 police officers and the
Toronto Police Services Board as defendants. The Nguyens demand either the
return of $600,000 worth of property, or the cash equivalent, plus another
$100,000 in damages.

Numerous Charges

Among the defendant officers are Staff Sgt. John Schertzer, Sean McGuiness
and James Leslie -- three of eight Central Field Command drug squad
officers who were facing numerous counts of theft, fraud and forgery until
the charges were stayed last week.

Prosecutors said continuance "may jeopardize an ongoing criminal
investigation." Prosecutors have a year to reactivate the charges.

A justice of the peace approved the Thy search Feb. 10, 1999 after Det.
Const. Darren Cox submitted details of how an undercover cop paid a male
suspect $32,140 for 238 grams of heroin in seven separate transactions on
Bishop Desmond Tutu Blvd. It was one of 12 warrants obtained that day by
the drug squad.

While drug squad and surveillance officers trailed suspects travelling to
and from 20 different addresses, restaurants and coffee shops in Toronto on
16 days over a three-month period, the only apparent evidence involving the
Thy was that three suspected dealers met there twice.

After one meeting, three men left the Thy and one of them entered
neighbouring 56 Grande and emerged with a package he gave to the two men
who waited in a car outside, the documents show.

The Nguyens' lawyer refuses to comment and specifically asked The Sunday
Sun not to contact his clients.