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2005: Revelation
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Toronto Police,
2004
- Ex-jail guards convicted
Four of five men found guilty in inmate beating
Premature news release celebrates court victory
DALE ANNE FREED, STAFF REPORTER,
Jan. 28, 2004
Four former jail guards have
been convicted of beating up an inmate at the Toronto East Detention
Centre, leaving him screaming in pain.
In a 58-page verdict, Madam
Justice Geraldine Sparrow found Kuitim Collin, 36, Donald Cuthbert,
36, Robert Mondesir, 36 and Dale Sammy, 36, each guilty of causing
bodily harm to then-inmate Harold Pearson on Feb. 2, 2001.
Sparrow wrote in her judgment
that "an aspect" of Toronto East Detention Centre culture
"it appears, condones or even encourages certain individuals
in taking on disciplinary functions in breach of the rules, thereby
increasing the chances that incidents such as this one will arise."
The four listened speechless
to the verdict in the Ontario Court of Justice at Old City Hall
as a fifth guard, Mark Dewar, was acquitted of the charge yesterday.
Dewar, 38, sighed audibly when
he was acquitted. Afterward his girlfriend hugged him and some
25 fellow jail guards stood by him offering support.
Defence lawyer Harry Black
was distraught over the verdict.
"It was a hugely excessive
prosecution. It just ground these men and their lives into the
dust for 33 months," Black said outside the courtroom. He
represented three of the men.
The sentencing hearing takes
place March 25.
The five were so sure they
would be exonerated that they issued a premature news release
before the verdict yesterday with the headline: "Five correctional
officers found not guilty of assaulting inmate."
The release goes on to say
"We received no support from our employers or the media.
... We turned to alcohol and prescription pills to help us deal
with our anger, stress, anxiety and depression."
The complex proceedings had
continued for 55 days intermittently from April 18, 2002 to Nov.
13, 2003.
"It's been three years
of hell. But justice at least prevailed for me. Justice was denied
for the others," Dewar said outside the courtroom.
`It's been three years of
hell. But justice at least prevailed for me.'
Mark Dewar, former guard
"I can't stay to see the
rest," said Dewar as he left the courtroom while the judge
adjourned for half an hour giving defence lawyers time to read
her decision.
But Dewar, union president
at the Toronto East Detention Centre, said it's not over yet.
The conviction puts the dream
of one guard to become a Mountie on hold. Cuthbert said he'd
already been accepted to the force. "It's very disappointing,"
Cuthbert said outside court. "We were suspended without
pay. We can't get proper jobs. What do you put on your reference?"
"A travesty," is
how Collin sees it. "My wife left me because of this.''
All five were first suspended,
then fired in September, 2001. . "We're going to have to
appeal this. This is ridiculous," said Sammy. "We have
no pensions, we have no money. We are so in debt over paying
our lawyers' fees to prove our innocence," Cuthbert said
outside court.
A sobbing Pearson testified
he was assaulted on Feb. 2, 2001, after being accused of deliberately
bumping into a female correctional officer while he was being
moved between floors.
After the alleged incident,
Pearson said he was placed in segregation with two other prisoners.
He said that shortly after
the other prisoners were removed, five guards entered his cell
and began punching and kicking him.
Pearson testified Sammy began
punching him in the chest and said "You like hitting on
ladies." He claimed that the other four joined in on the
beating.
Pearson was being held in jail
on an assault conviction for which he received a suspended sentence.
Although he had been granted bail, "a justice of the peace
had refused to approve a surety for him by late afternoon, although
attempts were still being made," Sparrow wrote in her judgment.
Pearson claimed he was brutally
kicked and punched, sobbing in pain and at one point urinating
blood.
He claimed he was left on his
mattress for about 25 minutes until he was pulled out by two
correctional guards, taken to hospital and released that night.
After the alleged beating,
Pearson said he suffered severe recurring headaches from the
tearing of his dreadlocks and injuries to his testicles.
Guards charged after
inmate beaten
Amanda Graham STAFF REPORTER,
Toronto Star, February 24, 2001
Six guards have been charged
with aggravated assault after a 26-year-old man was severely
beaten at the Toronto East Detention Centre. The man, who was
taken to hospital with internal bleeding, a ripped scrotum and
head injuries, was in the centre Feb. 2 awaiting a trial for
aggravated assault.
Police said the victim had
bumped into a female guard earlier in the day and was given a
misconduct, an internal discipline within the jail. The man was
taken to a room and two other inmates were asked to leave, said
Detective Lorne Firlotte of 41 Division. The inmate was then
assaulted by as many as eight guards, he said. The beating was
so severe, the man had to be taken to Scarborough General Hospital.
"He had internal and external
injuries," Firlotte said. "His hair was pulled out;
he had bruises and scrapes all over his body. He had internal
bleeding and broken blood vessels."
When the man told nurses what
had happened, a justice of the peace was brought to the hospital
so he could be released on bail and not have to return to the
detention centre. Soon afterward, he swore out charges against
the guards and an investigation began.
``In this particular case,
there was overwhelming proof that something had happened,'' Firlotte
said.
The inmate identified six of
his attackers, Firlotte said. Six prison guards turned themselves
in yesterday and were charged with aggravated assault. The Toronto
East Detention Centre refused to comment on the charges last
night.
Donald Cuthbert, 33, Kuitim
Collin, 33, Alton McFarlane 35, Carleton Johnson, 28, Robert
Mondesir, 33, all from Toronto, and Dale Sammy, 33, of Pickering
have been charged.
The six will appear in Scarborough
court on March 21. Police are not releasing the name of the inmate
until the investigation is complete.
Police
board needs Miller
Strong voice needed to confront police culture
ROSIE DIMANNO, Toronto Star,
Jan. 24, 2004
In the 75 days since he was
elected mayor, David Miller has hardly put a foot wrong. And
bully for him.
But, in retrospect, there was
arguably one misstep: declining a seat on the Toronto Police
Services Board.
It's a right that comes with
the office of Toronto mayor. Given how politically relevant the
police board has become - quite properly, too, because police
oversight is a crucial issue in the city and the board should
not be seen as compliant or easily cowed - the mayor's presence
on it is essential.
Miller defends his decision
to give the board a pass.
"As mayor, it's important
for me to sit on the police services board and the transit commission,"
he told the Star this week. "But I just can't do both at
once."
Since he was already on the
TTC board, and with public transit also a vital conundrum facing
the city - a $48 million operating shortfall, the spectre of
yet another fare increase if the provincial Liberals don't come
to the rescue in their April budget - Miller considered it totally
reasonable to stick with what he knew best as he slid into the
big chair.
The plan, he says, is to serve
18 months on the transit commission, then the next 18 months
on the police board.
"I'm kept well-briefed
on police issues," he insists. "I speak to the chief
every couple of days. I talk to all the city appointees regularly.
I have two staff assigned to the board. I am properly briefed."
In lieu of himself, Miller
sent three city councillors to the board: Pam McConnell, John
Filion and Case Ootes. Another city appointee was Alan Heisey,
voted chair. The province kicked in Allan Leach, Dr. Benson Lau
and Norm Gardner. But Leach, a former Conservative cabinet minister,
resigned last month. And Gardner, the old gun-gaga veteran hand
on the board - it feels like he's been there forever - had to
step aside, vacating the chair he'd held, while under investigation
for accepting a discount-price firearm from a gun manufacturer
and free ammunition from the police force.
Gardner might yet return to
the board, although that seems unlikely. But at the moment, with
all provincial appointments frozen under the new Liberal regime,
the board is two bricks short of a seven-complement load.
This is an unfortunate, if
unintended, state of affairs. Because it's been a long time since
the police board has loomed this significantly in its governance
role.
Under Gardner, and tilting
palpably to the right, all had been relatively calm between the
board and the Toronto Police Service. Or, to put it more bluntly,
between the board and the Toronto Police Association, save for
that ever-predictable squabble and muscle-flexing come contract
time. This is meat 'n' potatoes management-union stuff, although
Gardner - who's fiscally responsible, for all his cop-sucking
- was quite useful in diffusing a threatened labour confrontation
last time around.
But suddenly, in a climate
of reform that's accompanied the ideological shift at Queen's
Park, the police board is newly relevant and significant. Its
composition, whilst awaiting further provincial appointments
- it's a good bet those appointments won't be right-wing cop
groupies - is no longer so cop-centric.
That's already raised the hackles
of newly minted police union president Rick McIntosh, who learned
his union tactics at the knee of bombastic predecessor Craig
Bromell. McIntosh is not quite so splenetic, but the message
he's thus far conveyed is no different: Mess with us and there
will be trouble.
I doubt whether political activism
is uppermost in the minds of most Toronto cops, but there was
McIntosh on Thursday, getting all shirty with the police board
over endorsement of political candidates.
He couched it as a Charter
rights issue, but that's disingenuous.
The union, feeling particularly
threatened with a reform mood at Queen's Park and a lefty tinge
at city hall, covets political favours - a quid pro quo with
politicos who'll walk its walk and talk its talk. (Although it
can't be said that the association's endorsement did any good
for losing mayoral candidate John Tory.)
Up against a heavy-handed and
bullying cop culture, the board needs a strong voice speaking
on behalf of a city that's reform-minded and a citizenry appalled
- alarmed, too - by a slew of recent criminal charges against
Toronto police officers.
The stench of mendacity, as
uncovered by a lengthy RCMP probe, goes far beyond a half-dozen
drug-squad cops.
"I was surprised and dismayed
by the revelations," Miller says, referring to the police
charges and the information contained in police probe affidavits
unsealed this week. Miller did give full points to police Chief
Julian Fantino - who sought the RCMP investigation - for commissioning
retired judge George Ferguson to further investigate police corruption
and how to prevent it.
Which is all fine and good,
especially coming in the same week that Miller gave a most qualified
endorsement of Fantino when the Star revealed the chief was seeking
a two-year extension on his own contract.
But that's another issue.
Simply put, the police board
needs the authority of the mayor's office within its ranks.
McConnell, going mano-a-mano
with McIntosh on Thursday, proved that she's a scrapper, which
is to the board's benefit. But she's also a left-wing shrew and
easy for the union to marginalize when it plays its "usual
suspects" card on the public. The others on the board, whatever
their political ideology, have yet to show they possess the mettle
to stand their ground in a forum where the enemy often plays
dirty.
I suspect Miller has the mettle.
Pity he's watching from the balcony.
Changes at top after
chief tirade
Alan Cairns, Toronto Sun,
January 22, 2004
More internal problems are
brewing for Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino after a heated
run-in with a senior officer. Fantino and Supt. Bob Strathdee
became embroiled in a screaming match this week after Fantino
made a surprise visit to 12 Division and Strathdee, sources say.
Details surrounding the reasons
for Fantino's visit are sketchy, but reports that officers and
clerical staff "ducked for cover" amid much yelling
and door-slamming spread through the police service yesterday.
Sources say that Strathdee
has in the past few days been removed as head of 12 Division
and is now working in court support, or a similar position at
police headquarters.
Strathdee did not return telephone
calls left on his police voice mail yesterday.
Clerks at 12 Division, asked
for Strathdee, told the Sun he "is not here any more."
Calls were referred to newly
appointed Supt. Mike Federico, who did not respond to a telephone
message.
When the Sun asked Toronto
Police director of corporate communications Mark Pugash about
the alleged incident, he said, "right" -- but then
excused himself to go to a meeting and transferred the call to
spokesman Sgt. Jim Muscat.
"I do not have any information
of any confrontation between the chief and any other senior officers,"
Muscat said.
Strathdee, a one-time homicide
cop with close ties to former chief and homicide star David Boothby,
was head of internal affairs in April, 1999 when a litany of
complaints were launched against drug squad officers.
Drug
squad fallout rages
Chief faces heat amid corruption allegations
Miller wants assurance it won't happen again
CAL MILLAR AND CATHERINE
PORTER, STAFF REPORTERS, Toronto Star, Jan. 21, 2004
Some officers face internal
police hearings, but there will be no further criminal investigation
of claims that police tried to silence witnesses during an RCMP-led
corruption probe, Chief Julian Fantino said yesterday.
Fantino's comments came amid
a storm of reaction to the release of court documents relating
to the two-year probe of the central field command drug squad.
Some allegations include claims
that potential witnesses were threatened by officers, raising
concerns that problems inside the force go deeper than the charges
laid two weeks ago.
Also yesterday, Mayor David
Miller asked the chief to report on how to maintain public confidence
in the force, while prominent lawyer Clayton Ruby called the
internal handling of the investigation "a disgrace."
Fantino told a news conference
that "attempts have been made" to investigate the alleged
intimidation of witnesses described in sworn affidavits from
the RCMP-led probe.
The task force's two-year investigation
ended Jan. 7 with charges against six officers. Four others were
named as "unindicted co-conspirators."
Fantino said some of the 17
officers investigated have been exonerated but did not know how
many. Others will be probed by the professional standards and
internal affairs units.
"We've only dealt with
the criminal piece, as you know," he said. "But there's
other sidebar issues that will have to be dealt with by Police
Act charges."
The chief gave no hint of what
charges could be filed.
Miller said Fantino had assured
him yesterday that he would report to the police board on how
to maintain public confidence in the force.
"Like every resident of
Toronto, I want to be assured that this is an isolated case,
and that every step is being taken to make sure that, whatever
led to this, those conditions don't exist in future, and it won't
happen again," Miller said. "It's not acceptable."
Ruby, one of three criminal
lawyers calling for a royal commission into the handling of the
corruption allegations, said the affidavits released Monday suggest
corruption was broader than Fantino acknowledged.
The affidavits were filed in
support of a Department of Justice effort to overturn the conviction
of a heroin dealer, and were sealed until Monday. Three appeal
court judges ordered the information released despite objections
from lawyers representing the six officers, who said it might
interfere with their right to a fair trial.
The allegations include claims
that drug squad officers lied in court, beat up a drug dealer,
took money from safety deposit boxes, and pocketed jewelry, narcotics
and cash while doing searches.
"The disgrace is, and
this is Fantino's failure, is that he's done nothing with all
this evidence," said Ruby. "By the standard over which
charges get laid by police, as opposed to against police, many
more charges would have been laid."
Ruby said the handling of the
scandal has damaged the reputation of the entire force.
"It leaves all the honest
officers under a cloud, because we don't know who the people
are that are crooks, in the view of (RCMP Chief Superintendent
John) Neily, and unprosecutable in the view of Fantino. ... Fantino
will have succeeded in creating his theory that this is a few
bad apples, an isolated event, and we now know that it's not
isolated."
Lawyer Edward Sapiano, who
raised concerns about drug officers several years ago, said any
public inquiry must go beyond just the officers now involved.
"We absolutely have to
have a public inquiry, either before or after the criminal trials,
that looks into police operations and actions. But it must also
look at the inner workings, or non-workings, of the justice department,
the office of the Attorney-General of Ontario and the two levels
of courts, the Ontario Court of Justice and the Superior Court,"
Sapiano said.
"The public and interested
parties should be asking themselves ... How is it this was allowed
to go on for so long and to such a degree under the noses of
the prosecutors and the judges?" Sapiano said.
In the affidavits unsealed
this week, Neily, the RCMP officer who led the probe, said investigators
consulted with crown attorneys, isolated stronger cases and concentrated
on those with the best chance of conviction.
The task force laid 40 criminal
charges against six former members of the Central Field Command
drug squad, involving offences ranging from assault and extortion
to theft and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
At the time of the arrests,
Fantino said the allegations were "isolated and confined."
But a glimpse into the 2 1/2-year
investigation by Neily's task force suggests otherwise.
Neily, in one of several affidavits
sworn in a bid to keep sealed court records that might jeopardize
the investigation, states the investigation was impeded by police
tactics of terrorizing witnesses and a refusal by suspected officers
to co-operate with investigators.
From day one, Neily stated,
his 31-member team, largely composed of Toronto police investigators,
faced a hostile reception from the police rank and file.
"We are receiving very
little co-operation from witness police officers of the Toronto
Police Service, and in fact, it can be fairly stated that witness
police officers are antagonistic towards this investigation,"
he wrote in one affidavit.
Those willing to speak as witnesses
faced potential recrimination, he stated.
In one case, an officer who
had co-operated with an earlier phase of the investigation heard
indirectly "that he would get his kneecaps broken for having
talked to the internal affairs investigators," according
to an affidavit sworn by former internal affairs officer Detective
Sergeant Randy Franks.
Officers weren't the only ones
worried about speaking out.
An informer who provided information
later stopped talking to investigators after "he had been
pulled over by five unknown persons and threatened with a gun,"
Franks wrote in his affidavit. "The assailants told the
witness that if they found out that it was him (who had co-operated
with the investigation), he was dead."
Neily also worried for the
safety of the non-police witnesses, stating that if their identities
were made public, they would have to be admitted to the witness
protection program.
Neily described how charges
of theft, fraud and forgery against three officers, laid in connection
with the force's informant fund, were dropped. The cases unravelled,
in part, after an integral witness "expressed extreme fear
for his safety, recanted, had intentionally injured himself,
threatened further self-mutilation if forced to testify and was
ultimately assessed by the crown as unreliable," he stated.
At one stage, Neily stated
that "evidence of criminal activity" included 17 members
of the Central Field Command Drug Section - 11 more than were
charged earlier this month.
At the time, Neily wrote he
was planning to identify only those suspected of committing the
most serious crimes. The others, he hoped, "may become witness
officers" and will be subject to review under the Police
Services Act, he stated.
By his last affidavit, submitted
to the court last June, Neily had whittled the number down to
12 officers. The others may have conducted themselves in ways
that were "unprofessional or on the borderline of criminal
behaviour," but his team didn't have strong enough evidence
to charge them, Neily wrote.
The probe, which cost about
$3 million, was a huge undertaking. It involved 26 officers,
five support staff and outside professionals, including forensic
accountants, and criminal intelligence analysts who looked at
patterns of officer behaviour.
with files from Kerry Gillespie,
Betsy Powell and Vanessa Lu
Changes at top after
chief tirade
Alan Cairns, Toronto Sun,
January 22, 2004
More internal problems are
brewing for Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino after a heated
run-in with a senior officer. Fantino and Supt. Bob Strathdee
became embroiled in a screaming match this week after Fantino
made a surprise visit to 12 Division and Strathdee, sources say.
Details surrounding the reasons
for Fantino's visit are sketchy, but reports that officers and
clerical staff "ducked for cover" amid much yelling
and door-slamming spread through the police service yesterday.
Sources say that Strathdee
has in the past few days been removed as head of 12 Division
and is now working in court support, or a similar position at
police headquarters.
Strathdee did not return telephone
calls left on his police voice mail yesterday.
Clerks at 12 Division, asked
for Strathdee, told the Sun he "is not here any more."
Calls were referred to newly
appointed Supt. Mike Federico, who did not respond to a telephone
message.
When the Sun asked Toronto
Police director of corporate communications Mark Pugash about
the alleged incident, he said, "right" -- but then
excused himself to go to a meeting and transferred the call to
spokesman Sgt. Jim Muscat.
"I do not have any information
of any confrontation between the chief and any other senior officers,"
Muscat said.
Strathdee, a one-time homicide
cop with close ties to former chief and homicide star David Boothby,
was head of internal affairs in April, 1999 when a litany of
complaints were launched against drug squad officers.
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
