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When ex-cop Michael Sandham was supposed to be serving and protecting, he was hanging out at a biker clubhouse.
His boss, the police chief in East St. Paul, Man., thought his constable, now one of six men on trial for eight counts of first-degree murder, was at a relative's funeral in Vancouver when he was at an Outlaw motorcycle club member's funeral in Sault Ste. Marie.
When Sandham returned to work and immediately asked for sick leave, the chief didn't know his officer was heading to Woodstock to live at the Outlaw clubhouse for a week.
Sandham's attraction to biker clubs as far back as 2002 came under attack yesterday at the Bandidos trial.
Sandham has insisted he was a peacemaker and bystander when the eight Toronto-area Bandidos were shot to death in Elgin County on April 8, 2006.
The revelations about his involvement with the Outlaws came out during cross-examination by assistant Crown attorney Tim Zuber.
Sandham has testified he joined the Bandidos to infiltrate them and eventually become a police agent.
The jury saw Sandham on police surveillance video at the biker funeral with a group of full-patch Outlaws. Sandham said he contacted the Outlaws because he knew a couple of people in Winnipeg were trying to join. He said he was invited to the funeral.
Sandham said he knew there was police surveillance at the funeral and was planning to tell his employer he had been there.
What Sandham didn't know was the Outlaws were the focus of a large police project.
Police quickly found out Sandham was a police officer and informed East St. Paul, where Police Act charges were initiated.
Sandham resigned before there was a hearing. He told Zuber the charges were because he lied to his chief.
Zuber said Sandham had burned bridges with the Outlaws and the police. Any idea of being a police agent made no sense because he couldn't be trusted, he said.
Zuber wanted to know what evidence Sandham collected while inside the Bandidos and without police support. There was none, he said, because "I wanted to get as deep as possible."
Zuber said he couldn't have gotten much deeper than at a meeting where Sandham said he heard American bikers order the killing of two high-ranking Toronto Bandidos.
Sandham faced a blistering cross-examination from defence lawyer Clay Powell, who represents Wayne Kellestine.
Powell questioned Sandham's motives for travelling to Texas and meeting the highest-ranking bikers in the organization.
Powell suggested Sandham was terrified the Toronto Bandidos had discovered he had been a police officer and knew they had sent two men to Manitoba to kill him.
When the dust settled at Kellestine's farm, all the men who knew his secret were dead.
The trial continues today.
jane.sims@sunmedia.ca