White elephant case. (Police theft from suspect and lies under oath): From our 'when you think you've seen it all department.'...Police theft from a locker - but not a locker in the evidence room. And it wasn't drugs that went missing. It was... (Now isn't that tantalizing? Read on. HL);

In the years since I started publishing this Blog I have become increasingly disturbed by the 'white elephant' in the room: Sheer, unadulterated, willful   misconduct in the criminal justice system - much  of it involving forensic evidence - committed by lab technicians,  pathologists, police officers, prosecutors and others.  Think Annie Dookhan; Think Sonia Farak; Think David Kofoed; Think Charles Smith; Think Ken Anderson; Think Gene Morrison. Think Michael West;   I have therefore decided to run this image of a white elephant at the top of every applicable post henceforth, to draw our reader's attention to   what I see as a major problem in all too many criminal justice system's - my own included.  Harold Levy; Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
"Reformers have for years recommended that all forensic labs be independent from law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies' and this is a key reform promoted by The Justice Project (2008). But fixing these problems is only half the answer' because half of the wrongful convictions attributed to misleading forensic evidence involved deliberate forensic fraud' evidence tampering' and/or perjury.
From "The Elephant in the Crime Lab," by co-authored by Sheila Berry and Larry Ytuarte; Forensic Examiner; Spring, 2009;

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STORY: "Peel cop stole statue of Tony Montana from drug dealer’s locker, judge rules," by reporter Jackie  Hong, published by The Toronto Star   on May 31, 2017.

SUB-HEADING A Brampton judge stayed drug trafficking and possession charges against a man after finding a Peel police officer stole a statue of Tony Montana while searching the man's storage unit.

 

GIST: "A Superior Court judge has stayed charges against a heroin dealer after finding a Peel police officer stole a statue of Scarface character Tony Montana from the man’s storage unit and then, along with three other officers, lied about it in court.In a scathing 46-page judgment delivered Wednesday in Brampton, Justice Jennifer Woollcombe described the conduct of Major Drugs and Vice Unit constables Richard Rerrie, Mihai Muresan, Emanuel Pinheiro and Damian Savino as “profoundly and demonstrably inconsistent with what a fair justice system requires.” Peel police Chief Jennifer Evans ordered an internal investigation after learning about the ruling. “I am committed to accountability to maintain the trust that we have worked so hard to build with our community,” Evans said in a news release. The ruling stems from a 2014 Peel police investigation that resulted in five drug trafficking and possession charges against Lowell Somerville of Brampton, now 35. According to a summary of evidence in Woollcombe’s judgment, Peel police witnessed a drug deal involving Somerville on June 23, 2014 while he was under surveillance. Police arrested Somerville for trafficking, and while searching his car, found a gram each of heroin and methamphetamine. They obtained a search warrant for his basement apartment in Brampton, where they found more drugs including 24.2 grams of heroin. Police also discovered Somerville was leasing a storage locker in downtown Toronto and obtained a search warrant for the unit. In their initial testimonies, all four officers said nothing had been taken from the storage unit. But Somerville testified that after being released from custody, he went to the unit and noticed some of his possessions were missing — among them, a metre-tall, “one-of-a-kind” hand-painted wood statue of infamous fictional drug dealer Tony Montana that he kept covered with beige cloths. “The statue is modelled on Montana’s character, at the end of the movie Scarface, at the point at which he utters the phrase, ‘say hello to my little friend,’ in reference to the gun that he is carrying,” Woollcombe wrote in her ruling. Believing his unit had been broken into, Somerville contacted his lawyer, Kim Schofield, who requested security footage from the storage facility. The footage, which Schofield submitted as evidence during Somerville’s trial, shows Rerrie, Muresan, Panheiro and Savino entering the facility the morning of June 24, 2014, apparently empty-handed. In footage of the officers leaving the facility, Rerrie can clearly be seen with a large object, covered in a beige cloth, under his right arm. Under cross-examination, and again after viewing the video, Rerrie said he’d taken a “stand-up heater” from a hallway in the facility that he said was in a green or black garbage bag and had a sign taped to it saying it was free. Rerrie testified he threw the heater out a few days later as it didn’t work properly. In her judgment, Woollcombe noted “the shape of the object that was carried out of the facility by Officer Rerrie appears very similar to the shape of the statue of Tony Montana,” and that a heater “was really not a necessity” as it was June..........While acknowledging she doesn’t know exactly what happened in the storage unit nor the motivation for taking the statue, Woollcombe wrote that “it seemed most likely that one of them found the statue and that a number of them recognized the statue as Tony Montana, a renowned drug dealer in a movie that they were familiar with . . . The irony of finding a statue of a drug dealer in a storage unit of a person they had just arrested for drug dealing is obvious.” “Each officer knew that this was something that they had no right to take,” Woollcombe wrote. “Perhaps because they never suspected a drug dealer would complain, or would be believed if he did, they committed what they knew was a theft of property.” “The officers all lied with the intention of deceiving the court about what they’d done.”......... Following the ruling, Schofield said outside court she was happy the charges against her client were stayed, but that the judge’s findings that the officers lied in court raises concerns about other cases they may have been involved with. “The question becomes, you have perjured evidence from an elite squad — how does this affect dozens and dozens, of not hundreds of other cases in the region of Peel?” Schofield asked, saying the case presents a “challenge” to Peel police’s Professional Standards Unit. “They must investigate and if there’s ground, lay the charges and prosecute them effectively, and let’s get to the bottom of this,” she said. The statue of Tony Montana is still at large."

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/05/31/peel-cop-stole-statue-of-tony-montana-from-drug-dealers-locker-judge-rules.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;