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Toronto Sun - Canada
25 November 2006

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Time ran out on cop probe?

The lawyer for a former pizza store owner who claims more than $220,000 went missing after a 1999 Toronto Police drug raid asserts that the head of the RCMP-led cop corruption task force told him the massive probe was shut down because of "a problem with time and resources."

Lawyer Peter Biro said special task force head RCMP Chief-Supt. John Neily, now an assistant commissioner, told him the reason he was given for the 2003 probe being shut down after police cancelled two scheduled interviews with his client, pizza store owner Milos Markovic.

"The chief superintendent told me that it wasn't his decision ... and that it wasn't his choice ... that the work of the task force was at an end ... there was a problem of time and resources," Biro said in an interview yesterday.

Biro said the order to close the probe "obviously" came from former chief Julian Fantino, now OPP commissioner.

"He did shut down the task force. The task force was not shut down by ... Neily. The task force was shut down by the office that appointed it in the first place. That's how independent this task force was in the first place," he said.

Biro said he decided to go public about Neily's comments for the first time yesterday after current Chief Bill Blair publicly defended the task force's scope and integrity and noted that it was the largest probe ever in Canadian police history and that $8 million and many thousands of hours were spent on it.

"What he didn't tell you is that they were not given a chance to complete their work," Biro said.

Fantino said through an aide yesterday that he would "prefer not to comment ... at this particular time."

Former task force member and "whistle-blower" Sgt. Jim Cassells has alleged that "numerous" allegations of wrongdoing uncovered during the three-year Neily task force probe were either minimized, ignored or swept under the rug by senior officers.

Another former task force member, retired Sgt. Neal Ward, has supported Cassells' assertions, saying Cassells is mostly "quite correct."

Toronto Police Services Board chairman Alok Mukherjee said Wednesday that he would "welcome" a public inquiry as long as it does not jeopardize criminal charges against six former drug squad cops that are currently before the courts. He stressed yesterday that any decision to call an inquiry rests with the province, but he would embrace one if it were called.

As revealed by the Toronto Sun earlier this week, an internal report written by then-Insp. Tony Corrie recommended months before the task force was created that a task force would bring the issues to the "forefront" and at the same time "avert" a public inquiry.

Biro said that while he is "relieved and pleased" Muk-herjee welcomes a public inq-uiry he is concerned about "the passage of time that will have gone by, before this matter really gets the kind of scrutiny, or public airing it needs to get."

In January, 2004, the Neily task force laid a total of 40 criminal charges against Staff-Sgt. John Schertzer and five former drug squad subordinates -- Steve Corriea, Ray Pollard, Rick Benoit, Ned Maodus and Joe Miched -- on allegations that they had conspired to take cash and drugs from suspected drug dealers. All but Benoit were committed to trial on conspiracy charges in June. Benoit will be tried for an alleged assault. All the officers deny the allegations

Sources say one of the cases that former task force members was not fully probed was the Markovic case.

In a statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 2000, Markovic and his wife, Natasa, seek $1.35 million in damages on allegations that large amounts of Canadian and American cash and other goods were stolen after an Oct. 28, 1999 raid on their Maestro Pizza store, located at 896 Wilson Ave., and at their house in Richmond Hill.

The statement of claim contains allegations that have not been tested in court. In a statement of defence the officers named in the lawsuit denied any wrongdoing.

The Markovics allege police seized about $397,000 and never returned more than $220,000. Drug trafficking charges against Markovic were ultimately stayed without explanation.

Biro said Markovic asserts he was never a drug dealer and alleges that amounts of cocaine were planted in his house and pizza store.

The Markovics lost their pizza store due to the cash that was lost, Biro said.

"A task force claims to have completed its investigation without interviewing subjects who are central to the investigation ... key witnesses in the entire story," Biro said.

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Toronto Sun - Canada25 November 2006

Time ran out on cop probe?

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Toronto Sun - Canada
25 November 2006