WITNESS TOLD NURSE OF COP BEATING HOURS LATER

TORONTO - A witness who alleged drug squad officers savagely attacked
him in a police station reported to a nurse hours later that the cops
had beaten "the s--- out of me," a jury trial heard Thursday.

Christopher Quigley, then 32, uttered the statement while a nurse
examined him at Sunnybrook hospital, stated a police officer who
escorted Quigley from the police station to the hospital shortly after
5 a.m. on May 1, 1998.

Toronto Police Const. Marc Lefebvre read his notes in court and
admitted he doesn't remember the incident when Quigley divulged the beating.

The 45-year-old officer told the jury his notes - which he recorded at
the time - were accurate.

When the Sunnybrook nurse asked Quigley how he suffered his injuries,
he replied: "They beat the s--- out of me. That's what happened."

Lefebvre was testifying at the Ontario Superior Court trial of Steve
Correia, 44, John Schertzer, 54, Raymond Pollard, 47, Ned Maodus, 48,
and Joseph Miched, 53.

The former Central Field Command drug squad cops collectively face 29
charges, laid in January 2004, including attempt to obstruct justice,
perjury, assault and extortion related their work between 1997 and 2002.

In six days of testimony, Quigley asserted that drug squad officers
kicked, punched and choked him unconscious in a police station to
force him to reveal the location of his cash and drugs. They then
plundered thousands of dollars from his mother's safety deposit box,
he alleged.

Defence lawyers are suggesting Quigley became violent with officers
after hearing that the police were searching his mother's house. He
suffered his injuries while engaging in a tumultuous battle in a
police interview room, defence lawyers contend. The defence are also
alleging Quigley is embellishing his injuries.

Lefebvre's notes indicate he was called to the 53 Division police
station shortly after 4 a.m. to transport a prisoner, Quigley, from a
cell to hospital.

He saw a "use of force report" which reported Quigley's injury as
being a bloody nose, according to his notes.

But the officer saw that Quigley was bleeding from his forehead and
vomiting blood, the notes state. Quigley "complained of sore ribs and
having trouble breathing," the memo-book disclosed.

Quigley described himself as covered in blood after being mauled by
the officers.

Under cross-examination by John Rosen, who represents Schertzer,
Lefebvre said he would have written in his notes that Quigley was
drenched in blood if he would have seen that condition. The missing
detail appears to contradict Quigley's testimony on his bloodied
state. The trial continues Friday.