Crown appeals stayed cop corruption charges

Ottawa Sun

09 February 2008

By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU CHIEF

TORONTO -- The Crown has launched an appeal of a decision by Ontario Justice Ian Nordheimer to stay four-year-old corruption charges against six Toronto drug squad officers.

"The trial judge seriously erred in concluding that there had been a violation of the right to be tried within a reasonable time," the appeal says.

Opposition parties at Queen's Park have been asking for a full public inquiry into what went wrong in this particular case and whether it is indicative of incompetence in the Crown's office or systemic failings in the justice system.

Attorney General Chris Bentley said yesterday that he supports the appeal but does not believe a public inquiry is required.

The largest police corruption case in Canadian history came to an abrupt halt last month when Justice Nordheimer stayed conspiracy, obstruction and perjury charges against drug squad officers John Schertzer, Steve Correia, Joe Miched, Ned Maodus, Ray Pollard and Richard Benoit.

The officers first came under investigation in 1998.

A lawyer for one of the officers said his client had gone through "10 years of hell."

FAIR TRIAL

Nordheimer ruled that the Crown's "glacial" disclosure of evidence to the defence caused an unreasonable delay in getting a fair trial for the accused.

The appeal says that the judge failed to attribute much of the delay to defence actions, did not appropriately take into consideration the complexity of the case and erred in balancing the Charter right to a speedy trial against the "profound public interest" in having these charges tried on their merits.

NDP justice critic Peter Kormos said most observers believe that Nordheimer's ruling was thorough, well-reasoned and likely to withstand scrutiny by the Ontario Court of Appeal. Kormos accused Bentley of using the appeal process to duck calls for a public inquiry.

"I think that's an outrageous abuse of process on the part of this attorney general," Kormos said.