Jim Wilkes

Ex-call girl wants province to fund lawyer for inquiry

Roma Langford said she can't afford to lawyer to represent her before the Ontario Police Commission inquiry.

The probe has been delayed while an investigation is completed into a secret resignation deal that internal affairs arranged with a Metro officer who ran a sex-for-pay escort service.

A hearing began yesterday to determine who would be granted legal standing when the Inquiry eventually gets under way.

Constable Gordon Junger resigned from the Metro force on March 1 after an internal affairs probe revealed he was operating the escort service with a prostitute.

The public hearings will focus on the operations of the internal affairs unit, which investigates allegations of police misconduct.

It will also probe the deal made with Junger that no Police Act charges would be laid and that all evidence in the escort service case would be destroyed if he resigned.

Lawyer Daniel Brodsky, who yesterday won Langford the right to standing at the inquiry, said his client is "impecunious -- she has no money.

"She is not currently a prostitute. She was never a prostitute -- she was a call girl. She never stood on the street."

Inquiry chairman Frank D'Andrea said Langford's request for legal funding would be forwarded to Ontario Solicitor-General Mike Farnan.

The three-member panel, which includes Jean Beauprie and Julio Menezes, also granted legal standing to Metro police Chief William McCormack, the internal affairs department, the Metro Police Commission, the public complaints commissioner and Junger.

It reserved a decision on standing for the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police and a coalition of black community groups represented by lawyer Peter Rosenthal.

Brodsky said Langford has retrieved taped I conversations with Junger thatthe internal affairs unit had promised to destroy.

He said she will use them in a paternity suit against Junger that will be dealt with in the coming months.

It was Langford's attempts to get the tapes back that prompted a series of Star stories that I exposed the secret deal Junger worked out with internal affairs to leave the force without charges.