The Crown prosecutor in a collapsed corruption case against members of the Toronto police drug squad wrote letters in which he complained of a lack of support from the police department and at one point threatened to abandon the case, CBC News has learned.

In January, Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer threw out charges of conspiracy, theft and assault against members of a drug squad led by veteran officer John Schertzer. The charges were the result of a three-year, $8 million investigation by an RCMP-led special task force, which also included members of the Toronto and provincial forces.

The officers pleaded not guilty and have steadfastly maintained their innocence. None of the allegations made against them has been proven in court.

In his decision to stay the charges, Nordheimer ruled it took too long to bring the officers to trial and levelled scathing criticism at the Crown over what he called the "glacial" pace of the prosecution.

But correspondence from lead Crown prosecutor Milan Rupic to RCMP members on the task force suggests the case was undermined by a dysfunctional relationship between the Crown and the top brass of the Toronto Police Service.

In a March 2006 letter to RCMP Insp. Peter Goulet, Rupic wrote of ongoing delays by Toronto police in filling critical vacancies, leaving the special task force short of staff to do followup investigations and help prepare the volumes of evidence.

"I am puzzled by the delay of the TPS in re-staffing the STF [special task force]," Rupic wrote. "At some point very soon this spring we will reach a point where there simply will not be enough time for any new team to do what is necessary."

He noted the disclosure brief for the case at the time the letter was written was "well in excess" of 200,000 pages.

"Frankly, I am skeptical that the TPS is capable of marshaling the necessary resources to do what is necessary on a case of this type," he added.

Rupic goes on to say he was "dismayed" that an officer with no case management experience was selected to replace the outgoing detective-sergeant in charge of the team.

In another letter to Toronto police that was seen by two sources within the special task force, Rupic threatened to abandon the entire prosecution if police didn't supply more officers to the case.

The Crown is appealing the Nordheimer decision and Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley is reviewing the case to decide whether there should be a full public inquiry.

'Maybe they wanted the case to go'

Jim Cassells, a Toronto officer who was part of the task force that investigated the drug squad, said that once they laid charges, he and his colleagues were shocked to watch their own supervisors thwart the Crown.

"It’s a fundamental responsibility of the police to support the Crown in prosecutions," Cassells told CBC News.

"I can't tell you how committed they [police] were. But the fact Mr. Rupic had to write correspondence and complain that he wasn't getting the resources he felt was necessary, it begs the question: how committed were we?"

The letters from the Crown could indicate that some among senior police management didn't want the charges to see the light of a courtroom, said Edward Sapiano, a criminal lawyer whose complaints years ago prompted the entire investigation.

"Maybe they wanted the case to go, to be thrown out," Sapiano told CBC News.

"When we have the attorney general's office writing, 'Frankly, I am skeptical the Toronto Police Service is capable of doing its job,' I mean, that suggests … not only grave concerns about what's going at the Toronto Police Service, but it suggests that maybe they intended for the disclosure not to be delivered in time."

Sapiano supports calls for a public inquiry into the case, saying it appears "the Canadian administration of justice was being attacked."

"When those people who are charged with the responsibility of investigating crime, collecting evidence, turning it over to the prosecutorial authorities for them to do their job, when we have officers of the court dragging their feet like this, it is outrageous," he said.

Crown also complained in earlier drug squad case

It's not clear why the Crown never put any of this before the courts. Neither Crown prosecutors nor Toronto police would comment for this story.

It is not the first time a Crown prosecutor has complained of lack of support from Toronto police in prosecuting one of the force's drug squad officers.

In 2006, senior Crown attorney John North, who prosecuted the corruption case against drug squad officer Robert Kelly, wrote in a letter that he was shocked to learn the officer didn't lose his job despite pleading guilty to drug offences.

North was brought in to handle the corruption case after Toronto police investigators received a tip in 2001 that implicated five undercover drug squad officers in an alleged cocaine ring.

Kelly resigned in 2006 despite a court ruling that he could keep his job after pleading guilty to drug possession and admitting he was addicted to cocaine.

"When I was assigned to this case, I was under the impression that the Toronto police was really serious about properly dealing with those officers, whose criminal conduct created a dark cloud over the entire service," North wrote in a letter obtained by CBC News at the time.

"At least in this respect, it appears I was very naive."