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ttfbune 35000 copies vol 3 no 13 a metroland community newspaper saturday march 28 1987 80 pages 25 cents coverup alleged in atv trial by bruce stapley courtroom observers may be wondering just who is on trial as a jury hears evidence in the case of dennis smith the area man charged after an atv collided with a police cruiser last spring the trial before judge and jury continued through to the end of the week amid allegations of a de liberate attempt by police to de flect blame away from them selves for injuries suffered by the 40yearold rr 3 claremont re sident this case is like alice in wonderland judge er love- kin mused during wednesdays proceedings in whitby district court it gets curiouser and curiouser smith who lost his left leg be low the knee in the crash has pleaded not quilty to two related impaired driving charges and one count of dangerous driving caus ing bodily harm court was told the accused man intends to launch a 500000 civil suit against durham regional police when his trial is com pleted smith has also been sued by the female passenger sherri wannop who was seriously in jured when his atv struck a marked durham police car in north pickering on april 27 1986 defence attorney russell sil verstein was relentless in his grilling of- cst paul mooy the driver of the cruiser that collided with the offroad vehicle he questioned both the motive and the method used for stopping a vehicle which according to evi- dence had been observed running a stop sign and nothing more you had no reason to suspect that the driver of the atv had committed any offence other than failing to stop at a stop sign mr silverstein said for that you figured it was appropriate to cut him off he had ample opportunity to stop replied cst mooy you admit the danger of trying to stop a vehicle in this fashion dont you the lawyer continued yes cst mooy answered wouldnt it have been easier to stop your cruiser get out your flashlight and flag him down mr silverstein suggested in this case i had reason to believe he smith wasnt going to stop the officer testified evidence provided by two area residents was used by mr silver stein in an attempt to tarnish the credibility of police statements relating to the time frame of the accident he also questioned the officers reasons for being so de termined to halt the atv robert demerchant who re sides with his family on cone 8 just opposite where the accident occurred had flagged down the police cruiser which he claimed was travelling at a high rate of speed he complained to the officers about cars speeding in front of his residence but made made no mention of an atv in his testi mony it was while mr demerchant was talking to cst mooy and his partner cst richard bates that smiths- atv was seen approaching the demerchant property court heard the cruis er immediatly took pursuit but while cst mooy and bates insist that aproximately 15 seconds passed between the time they took off to chase the atv and the time the vehicles collided both mr demerchant and his wife joanne testified the time elapsed was more like two or three seconds attorney silverstein was suc cessful in his attempt to prove that cst mooy had erred in his indication of where he had first viewed the threewheeled machine on the night in question he went on to suggest the police department concocted a scheme to get force off the hook norah gains liberal nod norah stoner has made a triumphant entrance into pro vincial politics by winning the liberal nomination for durham west the pickering environmen talist easily outvoted grit hopeful michael stephenson during durham west liberal associations meeting thurs day at a packed ajax high school auditorium her nomination was greeted by a chorus of norah norah norah from boisterous supporters includ ing a large contingent from claremont and other northern sections of mrs stoners home municipality the newlycreated riding includes for the first time all of pickering north of cone 5 along with the remainder of that town and ajax mrs stoner is a veteran pickering regional councillor and mother of five who has re sided in the hamlet of green wood for 20ycars whats inside fred froad fit for the frontier 38