Andrew Curnew’s 11-year legal fight to prove he was wrongfully convicted of gun possession and other crimes moves into a Toronto courtroom Monday, where the flamboyant, Rolls-Royce-driving multimillionaire hopes to finally clear his name.

He might not get that chance, however, if a judge agrees to the defendant’s request to halt the potentially sensational case featuring allegations of police corruption, planted evidence and a trial tainted by fraud and dishonesty.

Curnew is suing Toronto criminal lawyer Arun Maini for the way he represented him in the 2000s, when Curnew was a legal aid client, before he was a philanthropic, venture capitalist with a chain of dental clinics, a four-acre Bridle Path estate and rich, powerful and famous friends.

A self-described serial entrepreneur, who has a post-prison MBA, Curnew is perhaps best known for throwing extravagant parties, such as the engagement bash — with a ferris wheel, a tiger and a human sushi tray — that he hosted for his good friend Jeremy Bieber, father of pop sensation Justin Bieber. Besides the Biebers, neighbours Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel were among the eclectic mix of partygoers.

Curnew, 38, had humble beginnings.

Born to teenage parents, he was raised in subsidized housing complexes in Regent Park and Jamestown, before the family moved to a modest Etobicoke bungalow when Curnew was 16.

The complicated legal dispute heading to court Monday began when Curnew was 21 and police charged him with dangerous driving and gun possession.

At the time, he was operating a store on Lakeshore Blvd. W. selling T-shirts and other clothing products licensed by the Hells Angels organization. Curnew maintains that the arrest in 2002 and subsequent arrests on other charges were part of a co-ordinated police effort to pressure him into becoming an informant.

Maini, the lawyer he retained to fight the charges, did not subscribe to Curnew’s theory, and did little to advance it in court, leading to his wrongful conviction of 13 gun, drug and domestic assault charges in 2005, according to Curnew’s statement of claim filed two years later.

The statement of claim cites 21 examples in which Maini was allegedly negligent while defending Curnew.

The allegations state Maini failed to adequately prepare for trial, breached his client’s instructions and failed to call witnesses whose evidence would have helped exonerate Curnew.

He is seeking $3 million in damages and is representing himself. Curnew declined to comment about this case.

Maini, represented by lawyer Keith Geurts, acting on behalf of liability insurer LawPro, has spent 11 years fighting the action. The statement of defence, filed in 2007, claims the suit is “frivolous, vexatious or otherwise an abuse of process and should be dismissed.”

Maini says he did not act negligently and, at all material times, “exercised reasonable care and skill in fulfilling his obligations to the Plaintiff.”

Had Curnew followed his advice and accepted a plea, his sentence would have been “far more lenient,” the statement of defence says.

During the 2005 trial, Maini says, Curnew “sought to pressure” him “to provide evidence and raise defences that were either contrary to his interests, or that the defendant believed to be false.”

The statement of defence notes that Curnew, while represented by Maini, was acquitted of the first set of charges laid in 2002. Curnew also wrote a letter to legal aid in 2003 explaining how pleased he was with his Maini’s representation, according to the statement of defence. Curnew suggests, in his factum filed in support of the lawsuit, that the judge acquitted him in spite of Maini’s representation.

Last week, Geurts served a motion on the eve of the trial seeking to dismiss the action as an abuse of process based on the “estoppel” doctrine that discourages relitigation of cases.

“The matter is currently before the courts, and I am not in a position to comment on it,” Geurts wrote in an email to the Star. “I can assure you however, that we will be vigorously defending any allegations brought against my client by Mr. Curnew.”

Geurts said he would not comment on specific allegations in the case.

In response to the dismissal motion, Curnew is asking that the trial be allowed to proceed, arguing that “the issues in this action go well beyond the scope of the issues dealt with in the 2005 criminal conviction,” according to his factum.

As well, Curnew argues there is “fresh evidence” that “conclusively impeaches the 2005 decision.”

It was previously unavailable to him or to the Court of Appeal, which upheld the 2005 convictions in 2010, his factum states.

The new evidence is a sworn-videotaped statement of a man who admits he was working with Toronto police as an agent at the time of Curnew’s arrest.

The pair met in a jailhouse holding cell. At the time, Curnew was unaware he was a civilian informant, but came to learn that later, his court filings say.

At the trial leading to his 2005 convictions, Curnew had vainly attempted to demonstrate that the man he believed was a police agent had planted the firearms in his bedroom. Curnew claims in court filings that the judge’s scathing rejection of his defence was inevitable, as his own lawyer had not only refused to advance this defence, but actively distanced himself from Curnew’s evidence.

Enter Greg Lafontaine, a prominent Toronto criminal lawyer. In late 2005, he received a call from Curnew, who was serving his sentence in Joyceville Penitentiary.

Lafontaine told the Star in an interview that on that day he listened while, over the course of the next hour, Curnew discussed his case — and the role he believed the agent played in his conviction. At the time, Curnew didn’t have a dime.

It turned out Lafontaine had cross-examined the same man, who was indeed a police agent who had testified against his client at a murder trial. Lafontaine was surprised to hear that at Curnew’s trial there was an issue about whether the person was even a police agent. The agent’s identity was protected by a publication ban in Lafontaine’s case.

About five years ago, Curnew approached Lafontaine at a downtown restaurant and introduced himself.

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“I was completely blown away,” Lafontaine told the Star. “Since being released from prison, he had done so incredibly well. Better than most of us could imagine in our wildest dreams.”

The two have become close friends and Lafontaine has helped Curnew prepare the case for trial, including handling the questioning of the police agent in a videotaped examination.

In the video statement, the police agent admits planting two guns in Curnew’s bedroom behind a dresser. After Curnew was charged with possessing the guns, the police agent attempted to get in touch with Maini on several occasions “to tell Maini that he had put the guns in Curnew’s bedroom,” the factum says.

A transcript of Lafontaine’s interview with the former agent has been filed in court.

On Thursday, Curnew cross-examined Maini on his affidavit supporting the motion to dismiss the case.

According to a transcript filed in court Friday, Maini told Curnew, “It was not so much I didn’t support your theory he was a police agent. What I didn’t support was ... that advancing that theory was going to be the best way to defend your case.”

At the time, the police agent theory was “speculation,” Maini said.

Watching to see how things unfold in court will be Conrad Black, the former media baron who spent nearly 42 months in a U.S. prison on fraud and obstruction of justice charges. Black has gotten to know Curnew, whom he calls a “cordial, convivial person.”

He bats away any comparison of their incarcerations, noting Curnew, locked up on and off for nine years, did hard pen time and nearly lost an eye in a jailhouse attack.

“It’s an admirable thing he’s doing,” Black says of Curnew’s lawsuit. “I have no doubt he was treated unjustly, whether this is the route to overturn it I’m certainly not qualified to say that. I wish him well.”

Documents filed in support of the lawsuit suggest Curnew’s rise to riches was rapid.

After his release from prison, Curnew co-owned an exotic car dealership, which is where he met his future wife, Dr. Rita Kilislian. According to a sworn affidavit filed in court, Kilislian and her family immigrated to Canada with nothing.

“My husband and I share similarities in overcoming adversity,” she states. She became a dentist and by 27 was an endodontist, a specialist who diagnoses tooth pain and performs root canals and other procedures.

At the outset of their marriage, Curnew was “forthright with me ... that he had been convicted of allegations of this matter,” Kilislian said in her affidavit.

At all times, “he has maintained his innocence.”

Together they own a number of dental practices “which have a combined enterprise value of $25 million,” and commercial properties, according to the affidavit.

The couple, who have a young daughter, own the complete Andy Warhol Electric Chair series “attributed to Warhol’s protest of capital punishment recognizing wrongful convictions.”

In 2010, Curnew built Peterborough’s first advanced centre for microsurgical endodontics and dental continuing education.

“Philanthropy and social responsibility remain at the core of all business initiatives that Andy and I engage in,” Kilisian wrote in her affidavit.

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