A Toronto police "whistle-blower" testified yesterday that interference by senior management prevented a special internal task force from probing all evidence of corruption against several members of a now-disbanded drug squad.
10/19/07, By National Post
A Toronto police "whistle-blower" testified yesterday that interference by senior management prevented a special internal task force from probing all evidence of corruption against several members of a now-disbanded drug squad.
Sergeant Jim Cassells made the allegations at his own disciplinary hearing, where he is facing Police Act charges filed last year as a result of comments he made to the media about the most expensive police-corruption probe in Canadian history.
"I volunteered for the task force after I was assured it would go where it goes," testified Sgt. Cassells. "It did not."
The testimony yesterday is the latest round in a high-profile public dispute between Sgt. Cassells and Chief Bill Blair, who denied there was any merit to the allegations made by the 31-year veteran of the Toronto police force.
"There was an exhaustive investigation," said Chief Blair in reference to the 30-month long RCMP-led task force that resulted in a total of 40 charges in January, 2004, against six members of the Central Field Command drug squad.
The charges were filed more than four years after the first public allegations that some drug squad members assaulted suspects and stole money, drugs and jewellery during raids in the late 1990s.
The Toronto Police Services Board settled a number of civil lawsuits out of court as a result of the corruption scandal and the federal Department of Justice stayed charges in nearly 200 drug prosecutions.
When the six officers were charged in 2004, then-Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino (who now heads the Ontario Provincial Police) said the allegations were "isolated and confined."
"It was a decision that was made in consultation with the Crown attorney," Chief Blair explained yesterday.
A June, 2003, affidavit sworn by RCMP Assistant Commissioner John Neily, which was later made public by the Ontario Court of Appeal, suggested, however, that there were grounds to charge several more officers.
"We have isolated what I believe are the strongest cases from the many cases reviewed, a view shared by the Crown counsel," wrote Asst. Comm. Neily, who led the task force. "We have isolated significant criminal behaviour on the part of 12 serving Toronto police officers," the affidavit said.
Despite the length of the probe, Sgt. Cassells has sworn in an affidavit that senior management refused to follow up on many incidents uncovered by the internal investigators.
When the task force was announced by Mr. Fantino in 2001, he promised it would be thorough and independent.
During the cross-examination of Sgt. Cassells yesterday, a Toronto police lawyer tried to attack the credibility of the veteran officer by suggesting he had very little investigative skills when he was assigned to the task force.
The "belief " that the investigation was being stonewalled was "a belief from the lowest-ranking person in the task force," suggested George Cowley, director of Toronto police legal services branch. He noted that Sgt. Cassells had received almost no investigative training when he joined the task force.
Chief Blair denied that Sgt. Cassells is being muzzled as a result of the Police Act charges. "He is entitled to his opinion," said the chief. "He is being dealt with under our procedures."
An inspector with the neighbouring York Regional Police prepared a report to investigate the claims of Sgt. Cassells.
The Toronto Police Services Board has refused to make the report public.
Sgt. Cassells is asking for an independent adjudicator to preside over his disciplinary hearing, which resumes in December. He is currently a uniformed officer in the traffic services unit.
The Superior Court trial of the six drug squad officers charged in 2004 is scheduled to begin in January, 2008.
skari@nationalpost.com