Opening comments: More at the end.
Lots more to this story here.
Mississauga News - Aug. 25, 2007 - By Louie Rosella - lrosella@mississauga.net
Officer to stand trial on drug charges in the fall
A Peel Regional Police officer arrested in late 2005 over allegations he was attempting to traffic cocaine, is going to trial this fall.
Justice Canada spokesperson Paula Creighan said yesterday that the trial involving Const. Sheldon Cook, 39, an officer out of the force's 12 Division, will begin in November and is scheduled for three weeks.
Cook has been charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, along with attempt to possess a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking.
The marijuana charge stems from a seizure of less than a pound of the illegal drug on Nov. 18, 2005. The other charge was laid after the RCMP tracked a shipment of what was initially thought to be 15 kilograms of cocaine, to a home in Cambridge. The substance allegedly found at the home was not cocaine, but a flour-like substance meant to look like cocaine, court heard. The bogus drugs were being used by the RCMP in a drug sting.
A 14-year police veteran when arrested, Cook remains suspended with pay by the force until his case is dealt with through the courts. Meanwhile, Justice Canada has decided not to prosecute more than half-a-dozen drug cases where Cook was the arresting officer, due to the unlikelihood of a conviction, according to Creighan in earlier interviews.
Just a month after Cook was charged, a judge acquitted former Toronto Argonaut Orlando Bowen of drugs and assaulting police charges which were laid by Cook and another officer.
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