Accused hired hitman to kill rival at Toronto cafe

TORONTO — Coroner’s inquests should be mandatory whenever police kill someone by gunning them down or through other use of force, a review of police oversight in Ontario recommended on Thursday.

In addition, the Independent Police Oversight Review is calling for the province’s Special Investigations Unit to report publicly on all its investigations, including providing detailed accounts in those cases where no charges are laid against an officer.

The recommendations by Appeal Court Justice Michael Tulloch, who headed the review, are among 129 in his 263-page report.

“Police oversight, the police and the communities they serve are inextricably intertwined,” Tulloch states. “Modern policing, after all, is founded on public trust.”

Tulloch spent much of the past year looking at the three civilian agencies charged with overseeing police in Ontario with a view to enhancing their efficiency and credibility.

Among the frequently maligned agencies, the best known is the Special Investigations Unit — or SIU — which investigates when police kill someone, cause serious injury, or are accused of sexual assault.

Tulloch recommends legislating when police must call in the SIU and an officers’ obligations to cooperate with the agency. The SIU should be notified any time an officer fires at a person — regardless of the outcome — and the agency should have the power to lay charges on its own, he says.

To encourage officers to raise concerns about the conduct of their colleagues, the review urges the government to ensure effective whistleblower protections are in place to allow internal complaints “without fear of reprisal.”

The SIU has faced criticism over its penchant for secrecy and its use of ex-police officers as investigators, but Tulloch says he is not prepared to suggest a ban on former officers working for the agency or for another police oversight agency, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director — the OIPRD.

It’s important, he says, to look at individuals and their skills rather than their former jobs given that non-officers could be biased as well.

“That said, I recommend that the oversight bodies should do more to increase their complement of high quality investigators who do not have a background in policing,” Tulloch states in his report.

The SIU should only release the names of subject officers if charges are laid, he says, as generally happens with civilians under investigation.

Tulloch also urges the SIU wrap up investigations within 120 days. He also wants the agency to release past reports in those cases where police killed someone, as part of a detailed reporting mandate that allows the public to understand its decisions.

“Public accountability is a crucial foundation of the SIU,” he says.

In terms of the OIPRD, Tulloch calls for changes that include giving it a new name, and the power to investigate potential officer misconduct without a formal complaint, and to lay disciplinary charges, currently a task usually left to an officer’s chief.

Officers should be required by law to co-operate with its investigations, the report states, and the complaints process itself should be made more accessible to the public.

“I heard that this was not always the case,” he says.

Among Tulloch’s most far-reaching recommendations are those that focus on the police disciplinary process.

Exclusive responsibility for adjudicating discipline arising out of public complaints should be given to a reworked Ontario Civilian Police Commission, currently the least known of the three civilian oversight agencies, Tulloch says.

Independent prosecutors and adjudicators selected by the Ministry of the Attorney General should handle public complaints, and appeal of misconduct decisions would go to Divisional Court.

The agency, which would be stripped of its non-adjudicative functions, should publicize the results of charges and track officers who are subject of multiple complaints, the report recommends.

Overall, Tulloch recommends legislation for the three oversight bodies that is separate from the Police Services Act, as is currently the case. All three should also fall under the auspices of the provincial ombudsman, he says.

TORONTO - Three men involved in cross-border cocaine trafficking hired a costumed hitman to carry out a brazen daylight shooting at a Toronto cafe in order to eliminate an acquaintance also involved in the drug trade, a jury heard Wednesday.

On the first day of the four men’s murder trial, prosecutors alleged the group orchestrated the hit on John Raposo partly for financial reasons and partly because he had harmed two of them in some way.

In his opening statement, Crown lawyer Maurice Gillezeau alleged Nicola Nero, Martino Caputo and Rabih Alkhalil plotted to steal a 200-kilogram shipment of cocaine from Raposo, split the money three ways and kill him.

Gillezeau told jurors evidence will show the fourth accused, Dean Wiwchar, was a contract killer who went to great lengths to avoid police surveillance and donned an elaborate disguise to fulfil the job set out by the others.

All four are charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, to which they have pleaded not guilty.

Raposo was fatally shot on the patio of the Sicilian Sidewalk Cafe on the afternoon of June 18, 2012, as soccer fans gathered to watch a Euro Cup game.

A man dressed as a construction worker “walked up to him and shot him four times in the head at close range,” Gillezeau told the court.

Witnesses later described the killer as wearing a shoulder-length wig, sunglasses, a dust mask, an orange construction vest with a reflective X on it and a hardhat, the prosecutor said.

A hardhat, construction vest and skin-colouredfacemaskswereamong the items found in Wiwchar’s Vancouver home in the days that followed, while officers who seized his luggage found a strand of hair that tests later suggested came from a wig, court heard.

Earlier searches of Wiwchar’s other home in Surrey, B.C., had uncovered a cache of firearms as well as wigs, liquid latex skin, theatrical makeup, fake moustaches and beards and other items, the Crown said.

More than $60,000 in cash was also found in bundles in his pockets, his luggage and his parents’ home in Stouffville, Ont., north of Toronto, where Wiwchar went three days after the shooting, the lawyer said.

In an encrypted text message intercepted by police, Wiwchar said he was in the hitman business, was currently under contract and that his fee was $100,000, the Crown said.

Gillezeau said Wiwchar was first contacted by Alkhalil, who called him his “best hitter” in another intercepted message.

Police in the Niagara Region obtained warrants to wiretap Nero’s phones and record conversations in his home and car in early 2012 as part of an investigation into his alleged drug activities, Gillezeau said.

They were also granted permission to wiretap Caputo’s phone, court heard.

Officers got a warrant to covertly search Nero’s home in March 2012, which led them to a personal identification number and password they later used to crack the encryption on his messages, court heard. They seized his Blackberry during another search in May, the jury heard.

The Crown alleged those messages, sent by the accused using nicknames, laid out the plot to kill Raposo.

In some messages, Nero called Raposo a “rat” who deserved to die for some harm he had caused Nero and Caputo, court heard.

There were discussions on the need to get a photo of Raposo and a list of addresses where he could be found, as well as the gun to be used by the hitman, jurors heard.