Five Peel Regional Police officers who, according to a Superior Court judge, lied under oath as part of a coverup following a 2009 drug sting in Mississauga will not face criminal charges.

The officers became the subject of a Peel police internal investigation after Justice Deena Baltman issued her decision last fall.

Tan-Hung Dinh, 28, one of two men charged in the sting, pleaded guilty last February, at which time Justice Baltman said: “The police lied under oath in order to cover up (an) illegal search and persisted in their lying when confronted with the most damning of evidence. All these misdeeds were calculated, deliberate and utterly avoidable.

“The police showed contempt, not just for the basic rights of every accused, but for the sanctity of a courtroom.”

Peel’s internal affairs unit finished its investigation in late August and forwarded its results to Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General for review and consultation. That review was completed Monday.

In a statement released Thursday, police said, “After a comprehensive review of all of the available evidence and in consultation with the ministry, no criminal charges will be laid against any of the involved officers.”

Peel Chief Jennifer Evans has directed that the investigation continue for possible misconduct under the Police Services Act.

“The public’s trust is earned every day by remaining an organization committed to the highest level of integrity and transparency,” Evans said in a statement.

Defence lawyer Leora Shemesh, who represented Dinh, said previous judicial findings of misconduct by Peel police have been ignored and this case is no different.

“Since last September, internal affairs has had a formal finding from a Superior Court judge who concluded the officers’ conduct was reprehensible and should be addressed,” Shemesh said after Baltman’s ruling in February. “Nothing has happened. No charges have been laid, and internal affairs appears to be asleep at the wheel.”

Dinh avoided prison time after Baltman found Peel officers beat him, searched his home illegally and then lied about it in court. In her 38-page decision, she cited police misconduct as grounds for excluding all evidence seized from Dinh’s home, including two kilograms of cocaine and 2,000 grams of ecstasy.

The officers involved, she wrote, “essentially colluded and then committed perjury, en masse.”

Baltman said she deviated from a prison sentence of five to eight years — typical for major drug trafficking convictions — because of the “serious police misconduct involved.”

She sentenced Dinh to a two-year conditional sentence, with the first half to be served under house arrest.

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In September 2009, Peel police charged Dinh and Phuoc Nguyen, both of Mississauga, with several drug-related offences. On Sept. 27, 2011, Baltman delivered a ruling, subject to a court-imposed publication ban. However, then police chief Mike Metcalf said it “brought into question evidence given during the preliminary hearing by five members of our service.”

The ban was lifted last February when Dinh pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. Charges against Nguyen were stayed.

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