Corruption charges against two Toronto police officers have been stayed after an Ontario judge ruled Monday that court proceedings in the case have taken too long to get underway.
The court found that excessive delays violated the rights of Det. Const. William McCormack, a 28-year veteran of the force, and Rick McIntosh, who once served as the head of the Toronto Police Association.
The men were accused of shaking down nightclub owners in Toronto's Entertainment District by soliciting and accepting bribes. A 2003 probe into underground illegal activities in the Greater Toronto Area found that certain bars, whose owners paid bribes, faced fewer charges for liquor licence infractions.
McCormack's lawyer said his client did indeed borrow money from club owners, but that the action didn't constitute a crime.
McIntosh's lawyer Peter Brauti said his client was on a leave of absence when he agreed to help a downtown bar get a liquor licence. Brauti argued that his client should not be charged with breach of trust because he was not a government official at the time of the alleged offence.
Monday's ruling comes nearly two years after six Toronto police officers had charges stayed against them in another corruption probe involving the force's elite drug squad. Those charges were also delayed because of excessive delays but in October 2009, an Ontario court overruled the decision, reinstating some of the charges.
