Man admits to pawning jewelry stolen by cop

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This article was published 15/11/2016 (3262 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Details emerged Tuesday about allegations of corruption against a police officer who died before he could face criminal charges in court.

A 10-year friendship with the officer resulted in jail time for Bradley Gordon Laing of Beausejour, who admitted to pawning stolen police evidence for a gold-selling scheme with Const. Trent Milan, who was an 18-year member of the Winnipeg Police Service.

Laing, 30, was sentenced Tuesday and has 36 days left to serve after he pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of property obtained by crime. He admitted to pawning two necklaces he knew Milan had stolen. The custom-made jewelry had been seized by police executing drug warrants.

“That’s the unfortunate thing is that you were certainly, as I say, an individual that was convenient at the time. You were a friend of his, you obviously would have been well aware of where he was at, what he was doing. But for you, it met a need — you needed the money and he (Milan) needed to get rid of these items,” Provincial court Judge Kelly Moar told Laing during sentencing.

“I don’t think that the court is in a position to punish you for the actions of Const. Milan. The court’s here in order to deal with what you’ve accepted responsibility for, and that is the fact that you willingly pawned items that you could see had significant value.”

At the time of his death in a car crash on Oct. 3, Milan, 42, was accused of stealing police evidence – including illegal drugs and weapons officers had seized. Milan faced 34 charges, including breach of trust, theft over $5,000, possession of dangerous weapons and possession of various drugs for the purpose of trafficking.

About two weeks after WPS held a news conference to announce the charges against one of its own in what then-Deputy Chief Danny Smyth called “a dark chapter for the Winnipeg Police Service,” Milan swerved his black pickup into the path of an oncoming truck outside city limits and was pronounced dead on scene.

Jewelry originally seized from suspected drug dealer

Milan never had his day in court, but Laing’s case sheds light on allegations Milan was facing. The offences Laing admitted to stem from an arrangement he had with Milan to sell stolen gold and split the money. Laing was caught after he pawned two expensive, custom-made gold and diamond necklaces in 2013 that police had seized during drug-trafficking investigations. Milan is alleged to have stolen the jewelry from police evidence and later asked Laing to sell them for him. In total, Laing pocketed $3,500 for the two necklaces, which he pawned for more than $5,000 each.

The police service became suspicious after a unique piece of jewelry seized from a suspected drug dealer at the Marlborough Hotel in March 2010 went missing and couldn’t be returned to him even after the charges against him were eventually stayed. The bag of jewelry had been in a locked drawer accessible only by certain WPS members, including Milan.

But at the time, Crown attorney Jim Ross said, “he (Milan) certainly wasn’t the only person with opportunity, and the case went no further.”

Milan became a prime suspect later on when another officer reported Milan had shown him a large gold necklace that looked like one that had gone missing — a gold pendant with a diamond-studded dollar sign.

Meanwhile, the suspected drug dealer who’d had the charges of possession of proceeds of crime dropped against him later sued the City of Winnipeg over his stolen property. In a civil claim settled in June 2013, the city paid the man $33,000 in damages.

Milan and Laing were charged in September after police searched Milan’s home in Oakbank. Laing gave police a full confession when he was arrested Sept. 12, court heard. At the time of his arrest, he and Milan hadn’t spoken in a couple of years. Milan had become paranoid and refused to do any more business with Laing, his lawyer said.

“It may be fair to say in some ways that Milan used him,” but Laing was not a dupe or a pawn, Ross said.

The defence argued for Laing’s release with a period of probation considering he’s already spent two months in custody. Laing may have known the jewelry was stolen, but he thought it had been stolen from a drug dealer, his lawyer, Theodore Mariash, said.

Milan ‘a source of strength’ for Laing

Laing met Milan in 2003 when the officer was tasked with notifying next of kin about the suicide of Laing’s twin brother, who killed himself at the age of 16. Laing had found his dead body in the basement. His brother’s death sent Laing into a “downward spiral,” that launched him into heavy drug use — everything from marijuana to cocaine to pills and opoids, Mariash, said.

“While Mr. Milan was initially a source of strength and support for him, the dynamic of the relationship changed over time,” Mariash told court Tuesday.

Milan fed Laing’s drug addiction and began “grooming him to exploit him,” Mariash said, adding Milan would, at times, assert his power over the younger man by threatening to report Laing’s drug use and have him arrested.

Laing, who is being held at the Brandon Correctional Centre, appeared via video in a Winnipeg courtroom Tuesday. He was tearful as lawyers spoke about the case. He told the judge he was in treatment for his opioid addiction and had been clean for the past eight months.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay