statism watch

Fantino cited the need for Toronto Police Services to be ready for a potential ‘terrorist attack’ as reason to call off the Special Task Force investigation of these officers. See how that works? The lot of them should be fired and an inquiry should be set up to investigate organized crime ties in the service.

Flashback: Drug cop corruption case revived | Crown complained of lack of Toronto police support in drug squad case | CBC releases Toronto drug squad probe report

CBC News
December 11, 2009

A CBC News/Toronto Star investigation unearths previous allegations

In the late 1990s, nine separate drug dealers accused members of Team 2, led by Det. Danny Ross, left, and Const. Mike Abbott, of stealing more than $600,000 in cash from them. (CBC)

“A few bad apples.”

That’s how former Toronto police chief Julian Fantino described the force’s problems when six former officers were charged with conspiring to beat and rob drug dealers of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The officers, all members of Team 3 of the Toronto Police Service’s Central Field Command drug squad, are still awaiting trial after almost six years.

“I am deeply saddened and disappointed,” Fantino told a news conference in January 2004, commenting about the charges against the six. “I can, however, tell you that the allegations are isolated and confined.”

His comments came at the conclusion of an internal probe headed by RCMP Chief Supt. John Neily into the allegations or wrongdoing, which led to 40 criminal charges against the officers.

But police documents that surfaced for the first time this week in a Toronto lawsuit show anti-corruption investigators repeatedly briefed Fantino about similar allegations against other drug officers.

These warnings came several months before Fantino made public assurances that alleged wrongdoing was isolated to Team 3 of the drug squad. A joint CBC News/Toronto Star investigation has found that Toronto police did not allow Neily and his team to complete their investigation into those allegations.

‘There was a thief on that team’

The TPS documents were unearthed as part of a move to expand a lawsuit against the force this week.

They show another drug squad was being scrutinized by Neily’s investigative unit — dubbed the Special Task Force (STF) — for offences similar to the ones Team 3 was accused of.

In the late 1990s, nine separate drug dealers accused members of Team 2, led by Det. Danny Ross and Const. Mike Abbott, of stealing more than $600,000 in cash from them.

One of the documents shows that Neily briefed Fantino about those allegations against Team 2.

“These cases are unsubstantiated [without interviews with the drug suspects],” Neily wrote in a confidential briefing note to Fantino in May 2002. “I temper that … however, by telling you that there is very good reason to suspect someone on that team is a thief.”

Neily first assigned two investigators to focus on Team 2 in late 2001. They uncovered troubling questions over the officers’ handling of drug money seized during searches at banks.

STF investigators wrote in internal documents in late 2001 that in three separate cases, Team 2 officers did not follow standard procedures when seizing money from safe deposit boxes.

The investigators reported members of the team repeatedly asked bank staff to leave when seizing cash from safe deposit boxes, leaving no second witness to count the cash, counter to bank policy.

They found that team members delayed handing over seized cash and improperly stored the cash.

There were also discrepancies between the amount of seized cash reported by the officers and the amount of cash the defendants said they possessed.

Neily, however, couldn’t continue the probe as none of the alleged drug dealers would come forward to file an official complaint, fearing what they said about the officers could be used against them in a legal setting.

The stalemate led Neily to concede that the probe into Team 2 was stalled. But in a July 2002 note to Fantino, he said his suspicions still weren’t allayed.

“While I have ordered the nine cases of interest [to be] no longer investigated involving the team of Danny Ross, as reported to you in May there is no doubt in my mind that there was a thief on that team and it is my belief so far that it could have been one or both of [Team 2 officer] DC Mark Denton and/or Mike Abbott,” Neily wrote.

None of the Team 2 officers named in the ongoing lawsuit by Milos Markovic, a formerly accused drug dealer, would agree to an interview. Their lawyer, Gary Clewley, denies any theft and says the STF uncovered only sloppy police work.

“They do thousands of these cases and, at the end of the day, we have a handful of people who claim that they were ripped off. And when you’re doing thousands of cases, mistakes get made,” Clewley told CBC News in a recent interview.

“Documents don’t get filled out properly. Things don’t get put where they’re supposed to. That doesn’t amount to theft unless you start the investigation, working from the assumption that they are thieves and set out to prove it. I think that’s what happened.”

Renewed interest in 2003

Neily and his task force renewed their interest in Team 2 in early 2003, after getting Markovic to file an official complaint.

Before then, Markovic had repeatedly refusing repeated requests from the STF to complain about Team 2.

He relented after striking a deal that any statements he gave to the STF would not be used against him later, either in criminal court or in a lawsuit he filed against the police service.

Markovic was arrested in Oct. 28, 1999, by the Ross/Abbott crew and charged with dealing cocaine. Those charges were eventually dropped.

Markovic and his wife, Natasha, filed a suit in 2000 against: nine Team 2 officers who searched their home; the Toronto Police Service; its board and former TPS chief David Boothby. The TPS internal documents that surfaced this week were a result of a court motion in Markovic’s suit.

The Markovics claimed the nine officers beat him in his pizza shop and later robbed him of close to more than $361,000 in cash and valuables. They sought $1.3 million in damages.

STF investigator Det. Neal Ward said in a report about the Markovic case that “the work of the Central Field Command Drug Squad was sloppy at best and a hair’s-width away from being criminal.”

Neily had set dates in early 2003 to meet Markovic to take his statement of complaint. But that meeting — and the probe into Team 2 — was suddenly called off.

CBC News has learned that in March 2003, Fantino met with Neily, other STF investigators and TPS chief financial officer Frank Chen. According to sources who requested anonymity, Fantino threatened to cut off all funding for forensic audits on officers suspected of wrongdoing.

Probe moved to Internal Affairs

The sources said Fantino cited financial pressures and the need for Toronto police to be prepared for a potential “terrorist attack” as reasons for the STF to wrap up its work, closing the door on any further probe of Team 2 officers.

“I was shocked,” Peter Biro, Markovic’s lawyer at the time, told CBC News.

“Chief Supt. Neily called sheepishly and apologetically and told me the interview was cancelled … that the investigation into the Markovics’ complaints was at an end, [and] would not continue.”

“Chief Supt. Neily said on at least one occasion in that telephone call that it was not his decision. The explanation? A lack of resources and a need to wrap up the task force. That was the official reason given to me,” Biro said in a recent interview.

Neily, now retired from the RCMP, told CBC News that “given our resourcing limitations and our focus on Team 3,” the STF had no choice but to hand the case back to TPS Internal Affairs.

“It was a Toronto Police Service decision,” Neily told CBC News when asked why the STF didn’t handle it or do financial checks on officers on the other suspect team.

Neily recommended in a November 2003 document he titled, “Notes From the Wall: We Are Not Done Yet,” that someone should interview Markovic and begin an undercover operation to try to get to the bottom of the allegations against Team 2.

Fantino, now commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, refused to be interviewed for this story.

Markovic now learning details

TPS Internal Affairs did eventually take a statement from Markovic in the summer of 2003, but closed the file, concluding he was not a credible witness and too much time had passed.

TPS conducted no further probe of the officers or their personal finances. Markovic claims he’s been kept in the dark about the internal investigations for years.

After repeated attempts, Markovic’s legal team — now headed by high-profile Toronto lawyer Julian Falconer — secured a court order in December 2008 compelling the TPS to hand over hundreds of pages of documents, including the confidential briefing notes to Fantino about the Team 2 officers.

In February, the Toronto Police Service handed over the documents. Falconer, after reviewing the documents, decided to effectively rewrite the lawsuit Markovic had filed in 2000.

Falconer has now filed a motion in civil court that seeks to expand the lawsuit, claiming that beyond theft and assault by officers, the TPS failed to properly investigate the corruption allegations.

“It was deliberately covered up,” Falconer told a Toronto court at a Wednesday hearing. “They pulled the plug.”

In an interview with CBC News, Falconer brushed aside suggestions that the STF’s mandate was limited to an investigation of Team 3 and it had to end at some point.

“Why not tell the Canadian public the truth? Pure and simple,” he said.

“Why not acknowledge that they had concerns about members of Team 2? Why say the allegations are confined and isolated, when in fact the concerns were the opposite? Why not acknowledge that the investigation is being unplugged for a lack of resources?”

Falconer said he fears the failure to let the STF fully investigate Team 2 was all part of a plan set in motion back in 2001 when Fantino set up the internal probe.

He pointed toward an internal TPS recommendation that the STF probe could “avert a public inquiry” and “provide some assurance that it was just this one team.”

A Toronto judge has reserved decision on whether he’ll allow an expanded suit to go to trial.

Source | See Also under Police: Mumbai police ignored security alerts, says report | Police corruption case killed by delays | Scathing report concludes RCMP used TASERs prematurely in Vancouver airport death | New OPP cameras scan licence plates | U.S. police taser 10-year-old | UK: Photographer questioned under anti-terror laws for taking pictures of Christmas lights | Surveillance Shocker: Sprint Received 8 MILLION Law Enforcement Requests for GPS Location Data in the Past Year | RCMP watchdog won’t be reappointed | Canadian crime and American punishment | Border guards are now Olympic thought police – Amy Goodman detained | Vancouver eases Olympic protest restrictions | UK: Big fall in police use of stop-and search powers after outcry | Mumbai highlights security on attack anniversary | Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned | D.C. to pay 13.7 million to mistreated World Bank, IMF protesters | UK Police routinely arresting people to get DNA, inquiry claims | Death linked to ‘excited delirium’: coroner | US Cop Tasers and Arrests a 10-Year Old Girl For Throwing a Fit | Guantanamo won’t close by January: Obama | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Anti-Olympic activists decry ‘Orwellian’ treatment | UK: Terror ’suspects’ could remain on DNA database for life, innocents get 6 years | Vancouver police get military sound cannon just in time for Olympics | RCMP defend Taser use on girl, 16 | Iranian demonstrators clash with police | Public Safety Canada’s emergency plan not implemented: Auditor General | Bill would end RCMP self-investigations | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | UK Police in £9m scheme to log ‘domestic extremists’ | Montebello police provocateurs called before ethics panel | Students Protest Cops In School After One Of Their Own Arrested | UK: Paramilitary police placed on routine foot patrol for first time | Students to protest police role in schools | China executes Tibetan protesters | Police fend off protesters at Bush speech in Montreal | Video shows violent B.C. police takedown | UK: Secret files reveal covert network run by nuclear police | Toronto 18 video evidence released | UK: Home Office climbs down over keeping DNA records on innocent | UK anti-terrorism strategy ’spies’ on innocent | Taser inquiry wraps up in Vancouver with legal squabbles | Interpol and U.N. Back ‘Global Policing Doctrine’ | Canadian police adopt new TASER directive | PQ wants probe after Taser used on mentally challenged man | RCMP warns EnCana bomber may strike this weekend | Toronto high school arrest caught on video | Toronto Police Union picks controversial new president Michael McCormack | RCMP actions ‘gratuitous, ‘violent,’ BC needs own police lawyer tells inquiry | Embryonic EU security office set up in secret talks under Lisbon Treaty | Secret juror background checks not illegal, prosecutor says | Laptops fair game for border searches | UK: G20 ‘Police’ Protest Troupe in Bras and Stockings Charged With Impersonating Police | Portable heat ray weapon may end up in police hands | Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As ‘Anarchists’ At Pittsburgh G20 | G20 Police & Military Savagely Attack Peaceful Protesters In Pittsburgh Park | Military Police Kidnap G20 Protester, Shove Him Into Unmarked Car | RCMP tests Tasers that record video | Toronto police seize 400 guns in ’safety push’ | Braidwood inquiry reopens, RCMP bickers over preplanned TASER use | Merced police used TASER on unarmed, legless man in a wheelchair | Business as usual: SWAT team breaks down mayor’s door, shoots dogs, ransacks home, refuses to apologize | US Police to get access to classified military intelligence | UK: Police ‘must purge innocent DNA’ | Police training to forcibly take blood in Texas, Idaho | Ground broken on $3.4 billion Homeland Security complex | Border guards resorting to force more often | Drug cop corruption case revived | Evasive Australian police quizzed whether covert operative was planted among terror suspects | In UK, 1,000 cameras ’solve one crime’ | Obama approves new interrogation unit | UK: Police may be issued with new high-power Taser | RCMP reject watchdog report on internal investigations | Alabama County May Call In Troops To Perform Law Enforcement Duties | Pregnant mother tasered at baptism party | CSIS role in Abdelrazik case to be probed | Mounties have no choice but to comply with TASER ruling | Abdelrazik accuses CSIS, MPs of harassment and interrogation | Border agents handcuff, interrogate Winnipeg couple | UK: Woman detained for filming police search launches high court challenge | US Lawsuit: Cops tasered 3 kids in shelter, threatened one with sodomy | Officer denies uttering sexual threat before lethal TASERing | UK: Did MI5 kill Dr David Kelly? | Latest TASER victim looked ’scared’ as officer approached with knife | CSIS ignored Khadr’s human rights: Parliamentary report | Toronto TAVIS special police corps demanding ID on city streets | RCMP pipeline bomber hunt draws harassment compliants, comparisons to secret police | 2010 Olympic security plans include ‘free speech’ zones | RCMP now refer to pipeline sabotage as ‘domestic terrorism’ | US FEMA emergency management, Israeli IDF team up for martial law exercises | CSIS bungled second terror case | 50 Toronto high schools to have armed police presence | Use of warrantless police wiretaps flies under the radar | Mysterious people tailing recently repatriated no-fly-list refugee | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Illegal Victoria Transit bag searches reinstated under new policy for Canada Day | Harkat raid ruled illegal | Mounties discussed Tasing Dziekanski prior to altercation | Toronto police ready to take over transit patrols | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK Police watchdog to investigate Taser arrest, beating posted on YouTube | Inquiry makes criminal allegations vs. Mounties in Dziekanski death: lawyer | New video shows officer shove, then taser 72-year-old great grandmother | Mounties want to bar Taser inquiry from finding misconduct | CSIS reviews security certificate cases in wake of criticism | Harkat lawyers accuse officials of conducting illegal raid | RCMP halts use of malfunctioning Tasers after B.C. decision | CSIS forced to ‘reveal’ info on secret source in Harkat case | Jordanian woman alleges beating by interrogator at Toronto airport | Judge orders recall of CSIS witnesses in Harkat case for potential perjury, obstruction | Taser inquiry into Dziekanski’s death hears last witness | RCMP and US Coast Guard to integrate as Canada signs border pact with Homeland Security | UK recruits an army of snoopers with police-style powers | US Supreme Court rules police can initiate suspect’s questioning if right to counsel waived | Prosecutors, police caught checking potential juror’s backgrounds | Surveillance plane tagged wrong car, seized for street racing, woman says | Toronto police board challenges chief on CCTV deterrence, demands ‘phase-in’ | How MI5 blackmails British Muslims | UK: Retaining images from surveillance of protesters ruled illegal | Unannounced Toronto school lockdown drill backfires, police descend on neighbourhood | Police laud Toronto surveillance cameras, critics not so sure | Tories propose law allowing fingerprinting before charges are laid | Quebec woman gets ticket for refusing to hold handrail | OPP officer forced him into sex acts, man testifies | Top court to examine if minimum sentences apply despite charter violations | Winnipeg police confiscate documentary filmmaker’s camera | Veteran OPP officer charged with fraud, conspiracy to obstruct justice | Dziekanski’s death following Taser jolts no coincidence: expert | G20 police ‘used undercover men to incite crowds’ | Dziekanski ‘would not have died’ if spared Taser, expert tells inquiry | 3 B.C. men allege abuse by RCMP in 2008 raid | SMS texts being data mined in France: Man strip searched, held after joke | UK: Police to destroy DNA profiles of 800,000 innocent people | TASER’s medical expert says weapon didn’t cause Dziekanski’s death | RCMP didn’t tell pathologist Dziekanski suffered multiple TASER stuns, inquiry hears | UK: Police caught on tape trying to recruit climate activist as informant | RCMP spokesman told to hold off correcting false details of Dziekanski incident, inquiry hears | RCMP ’sorry’ for errors in taser briefings | All 11 men arrested during anti-terror raids released without charge | Olympics-Cruise ships set for security in 2010 Games | Cops can now ‘take all your stuff’ | Serious offences declined before Tories: study | British Army to Police Medicine Hat During Urban Warfare Drills | UK: DNA pioneer Alec Jeffreys: drop innocent from database | Afghan front lines take mental toll on military and RCMP | Secret Homeland Security Threat Assessment Labels Gun Owners Potential Terrorists | Trash search doesn’t violate privacy rights, says top court | RCMP shocked 16 people five times or more last year | Amateur video blasts G20 death coverup | Police seizures of cameras prompts B.C. complaint | RCMP still uses Tasers too often, watchdog finds | G20 ‘kettle’ police containment traps protesters, photograph a requirement for exit | G20 protests: Riot police, or rioting police? | G20 protests: riot police clash with demonstrators | NYPD seeks to expand anti-terror program to midtown | RCMP credibility battered by TASER inquiry | Quebec orders police to turn in Tasers | RCMP softened Taser-use restrictions | Rights groups press for better security oversight | RCMP supervising officer contradicts earlier testimony in Dziekanski inquiry | Police erased cellphone video of fatal shooting, witness alleges | UK Home Secretary unveils civilian anti-terrorism security force | Boys, 15, Tasered by police, stats show | Toronto police used Tasers 367 times in 2008: statistics | RCMP sexual harassment case dismissed because inquiry took too long | Head of RCMP unit that framed Arar promoted to Assistant Commissioner | Ottawa cuts funding for RCMP watchdog in wake of TASER inquiry | Annual anti-police protest leads to chaos in streets of Montreal | Pakistani police attack opposition march for independent judiciary | Entrapment becoming standard procedure for police | Tories aim to bring back anti-terrorism provisions | TASER launches new headcam for police – with ‘privacy mode’ | Monks taken for ‘re-education’ before Tibet uprising anniversary | Police-run gun amnesties in trouble across country | UK police maintain databank on thousands of protesters | ‘Say please’ at U. S. border nets pepper spray | Military may patrol bar zone in Barrie | TASERed immigrant ‘had the stapler open… he was in a combative stance’ | Irish Police Protest And Call The Government A Criminal Accessory | British Secret Service, Army Alert on Bank Riots | UK: Government plans to keep DNA samples of innocent | Ottawa moves to toughen anti-gang laws | All officers need Tasers, police associations say | Remote-controlled planes could spy on British homes | Family furious after police raid East Vancouver home | US Bill proposes ISPs, Wi-Fi keep logs for police | Schools seek more police as crime drops | UK: Landlord fights police plan for CCTV at pub | Witness alters story but maintains Dziekanski attempted to staple RCMP | Tasers potentially lethal, RCMP commissioner tells MPs | New law to give police access to online exchanges | Military and police practice integration during Olympic security exercises | UK: Why protesters are now stalkers: An object lesson in legal usage creep | Police presence in high schools makes the grade | Controversial US measure would require DNA sampling at arrest | Detective denies framing subordinate for drug theft, trial hears | Selkirk teen sues RCMP over stun gun allegations | Ban stun gun use on young people, Ontario child advocate urges | RCMP destroyed evidence, charges dismissed in second torture case for officers | RCMP destroyed evidence, court stays impaired-driving charges against Mountie | UK Terror Law To Make Photographing Police Illegal | Toronto 18 Terror case: RCMP agent Shaikh was instigator who broke law: defence | Montreal may ban insults to police | U.S. study raises more questions about TASER safety | CSIS invites academic community into the fold | Olympic security boss puts protesters on notice | Woman swats children on plane, charged with Terrorism | Police fire pepper spray at Iceland protesters | Deadly Seoul clash sparks inquiry | Second phase of Taser inquiry begins in Vancouver | RCMP watchdog launches new Taser probe around deaths | Rioters Were Paid To Provoke the Police in Bulgaria | Police forces withhold information on Taser use from public: audit | Beijing strikes at Charter 08 dissidents | Toronto surveillance project to enter new phase pending review | Greek Cops Caught on Video Posing as Anarchists | US police could get ‘pain beam’ weapons | Counterterrorism squad secretly taped arrest of British whistleblower, elected MP | Five muslims face life for Fort Dix ‘terror plot’ orchestrated by FBI | Australian Citizen Journalist Charged for Filming Police under Anti-Terror Law | UK: Bailiffs get power to use force on debtors | Russian police beat auto tariff protesters | Lawyers slam CSIS on phone recordings | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | No charges to be laid against RCMP officers in airport Taser death | India to create national spy agency in wake of Mumbai attacks | Amnesty: Disproportionate Police Force Used Against Peaceful Greek Demonstrators | Greek Police Battle Mourners, Memories of Dictatorship after Student Shooting | Three Toronto cops to stand trial on corruption charges | SWAT Teams raiding Amish, Food Co-ops in Rural US | UK Big Brother police to get ‘war-time’ power to demand ID in the street | EU Police to Stream into Kosovo Despite Protests | Ontario to place prosecutors in police stations | Counterterrorism squad rounds up UK opposition member over whistleblower incident | RCMP Investigates, Clears Self of Wrongdoing in Case of TASERed Inuvik Girl | Police officer stands trial for stealing fake cocaine in sting | Police decline to lay charges in school sex-abuse allegations | Safety report author Falconer on armed police in schools: “Facile” | Prison service ices TASER pilot project | ACLU wants probe into police-staged DNC protest | Ex-Italian President: Provocateur Riots Then “Beat The Shit Out Of Protesters” | Mountie involved in fatal crash was supervisor at time of airport Taser death | UK Security services want personal data from sites like Facebook | Tasers being used for pain compliance during interrogation, suit alleges | Activists seen as potential threat to Vancouver Games | Secret RCMP studies of Insite ideologically biased, advocates say | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Family sues police claiming Taser raid on autistic son in own bedroom | Top court to decide whether trash is private | ‘Timid’ police watchdog needs teeth: Ontario ombudsman | Tasering of mom with baby ‘necessary’ in order to take child, police say | American Rail Passengers Subject to Random Searches, Police Presence | 2nd Mountie sues RCMP over sex crime probe | RCMP didn’t study Taser use enough: Report | Police Taser and abuse suspect, lie on stand, man still convicted | RCMP lays no charges in Maher Arar ‘terrorist’ leaks, declares case closed | RCMP spied on… Rita MacNeil? | Police corruption preliminary probe ends | Perjury: Is it different for cops? | Journalists urge ban on police posing as reporters | Mounties pinned me down in cell and tasered me, Manitoba girl says | OPP officer posed as journalist during 2007 Mohawk protest | Illegal wiretap leads to call for investigation of OPP chief | OPP threatened natives to end blockade | RCMP e-mails throw Dziekanski Taser probe into question, critics say | Edmonton police rounded up women for ‘talent nights,’ hearing told | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | Toronto police, corrections officers arrested in connection with grow-ops | Papers Please: UK cops stopping millions in streets | Police inspector posed as militant protester | RCMP firing Tasers multiple times at subjects, probe reveals | Many Question if Toronto “Terrorists” Were Led by Informants as Case Weakens | Mountie blamed for confrontation with man who gave him Nazi salute | Casino Loophole Lets Criminals Launder Cash, OPP Officer Provided ‘Security’ | RCMP Taser Confused, Hospitalized 82 Year Old | CSIS Spying on Natives, Olympic Dissidents | Crown complained of lack of Toronto police support in drug squad case | CBC releases Toronto drug squad probe report | Massachusetts Police Get Black Uniforms to Instill Sense of ‘Fear’ | Video shows RCMP using Taser on Man while on Ground | Donations of money, property and services continue to corrupt Canadian politics | Undercover cops tried to incite violence in Montebello: union leader | Report details RCMP agent offences shielded by new law | Accused RCMP officer says force acted too late against him in sexual assault case | Canadians who trust our secret police should think again | Anti-terror cops probed Ottawa punk band for Cartoon, Political Speech | Links between Judge Ramsay, RCMP and Child Predation in our Justice System | Judge gets 7 years for sexual assault on young native women | Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the Crack Explosion

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 7:27 am and is filed under accountability, law, police. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.