Ex-cop left work for biker funeral

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This article was published 18/09/2009 (6105 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON, Ont. — When ex-police officer 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 on 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, Ont.

And when Sandham returned to work and immediately asked for sick leave, the chief didn’t know his officer was heading to Woodstock, Ont., to live at the Outlaw clubhouse for a week.

Sandham’s attraction to biker clubs as far back as 2002 came under attack Thursday.

Sandham has insisted he was a peacemaker and bystander when the eight Toronto-area Bandidos were shot to death in rural southwestern Ontario 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 policing employer he had been there.

Zuber said Sandham knew there would be a “prospecting” phase with the Outlaws, but Sandham insisted he didn’t join.

Zuber said Sandham lived with the president of the Woodstock chapter for a week. “No sir,” said Sandham. “I stayed at the clubhouse, sir.”

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 and 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.”

— The Canadian Press