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From police badge to biker patch
Former cop arrested for Bandidos' murders
'We had no reason to be worried'
JULIAN SHER
Globe and Mail
Saturday June 17, 2006
He wore a soldier's uniform for three years, then carried a badge
as a sworn police officer in Manitoba for two years. But he also
wore the patch, authorities say, of the Bandidos, one of the most
feared and violent biker gangs in the world.
Now Michael James Sandham, 36, will be wearing prison clothes,
after his arrest yesterday on first-degree murder charges for
his alleged role in the biggest massacre in Ontario history when
eight Bandidos members were slaughtered this spring in what police
termed an "internal cleansing."
It is not known how long Mr. Sandham's ties to bikers overlapped
with his time as a police officer, but the spectre of organized
crime infiltrating law enforcement circles has raised alarms across
the country.
"As a police officer he would have been exposed to training
material [on bikers] and a variety of related information,"
said Menno Zacharias, Winnipeg's deputy police chief. "It
is a concern."
"It's shocking that one of the officers that we trusted -
it's your first and last line of defence - is alleged to be involved
in some pretty heinous activities," said Michael Wasylin,
the deputy reeve of the town of East St. Paul, the 8,000-population
community northeast of Winnipeg where Mr. Sandham served as a
police officer.
"It's certainly a difficult thing to imagine."
Mr. Sandham was a soldier with the 2nd Battalion of the Princess
Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry from February of 1991 until
June 20, 1994.
After a short stint as an auxiliary police officer in another
small town, Ste. Anne, Mr. Sandham was accepted at the Winnipeg
Police Training Academy. Police personnel records indicate Mr.
Sandham was hired on June 30, 2002, by the town of East St. Paul
after graduating from the academy.
A criminal background check, standard for any applicant, turned
up a "clear history with no indication of any criminal involvement,"
Mr. Wasylin said. "We really don't know much about him, but
he seemed to have a lot of promise," the deputy reeve said.
Mr. Sandham served for two years, apparently without incident.
While on the force, he took several courses with the Winnipeg
Police Training Academy, The Globe and Mail has learned, including
escape tactics, defence tactics and use of force.
But in the fall of 2002, while Mr. Sandham was on extended sick
leave, East St. Paul police officials received a report that he
had been seen at a biker event in Ontario.
On Oct. 10, 2002, the police chief visited his home, took his
badge and served him notice of disciplinary action for consorting
with a "known criminal organization."
The town was shocked to hear it had a biker patrolling its streets
in police uniform. "There could have been instances where
he could have run records checks or be privy to certain information,"
Mr. Wasylin said. "That's worrisome. Absolutely."
Mr. Sandham didn't fight the disciplinary charges; he handed in
his official letter of resignation five days later.
"That was the end of our relationship," Mr. Wasylin
said.
But it was not the end of Mr. Sandham's career in law enforcement.
His next job was with Prairie Bylaw Enforcement Services, a private
company that has a contract with about a dozen smaller municipalities
in the province to monitor municipal regulations.
Dave Prud'homme, president of Prairie Bylaw, said he got to know
Mr. Sandham when he was a police officer for East St. Paul.
"He was very personable, easy-going," Mr. Prud'homme
said. "He came across as being a very friendly police officer.
Everybody liked Mike."
In February of 2002, he said, he hired Constable Sandham - while
he was on the police payroll - to train his staff. When Mr. Sandham
left the force, he was hired full-time.
Mr. Prud'homme said Mr. Sandham gave him a letter of recommendation
from the East St. Paul chief of police, a letter he said he still
has on file. Asked if he pushed Mr. Sandham about the reasons
for his sudden departure from the police, Mr. Prud'homme said:
"He was kind of quiet about it.''
"We had no reason to be worried, his references were great,"
he said, noting Mr. Sandham was a certified "use of force"
instructor.
Mr. Sandham trained the Prairie Bylaw staff in everything from
self-defence to first aid. But according to one person who took
his courses, Mr. Sandham displayed a knowledge of more than just
police tactics.
"I remember when the Hells Angels came through one day, and
he knew all of them by name," the trainee said in an e-mail.
The security company saw its business boom in Manitoba as smaller
municipalities complained the RCMP was stretched too thin. But
it ran into problems with the province when its members starting
using taser stun guns and handing out more than 1,000 speeding
tickets - infractions usually handled by authorized police.
Allan Brolly, director of Aboriginal and Community Law Enforcement,
a branch of Manitoba Justice, said that once his department found
out Prairie Bylaw employees were using tasers, "we shut that
down."
In an interesting twist, it was Mr. Wasylin, East St. Paul's deputy
reeve, who acted as a lawyer for Prairie Bylaw in some of its
disputes with the province.
It is not clear what, if anything, police in Winnipeg or East
St. Paul did with information on Mr. Sandham's links with bikers,
but police sources say authorities had been watching him for some
time before he was arrested yesterday.
Mr. Prud'homme said Mr. Sandham quit in the spring of 2004, citing
"personal reasons." He later heard "rumours"
of gang affiliations "but we've never been approached by
any police agency anywhere."
"It floored me," he said upon hearing Mr. Sandham was
arrested on murder charges. "I'm sick."
It is alleged Mr. Sandham became president of the fledging chapter
of the Bandidos when they officially moved into Winnipeg early
in 2005.
Mr. Sandham is not the first former police officer to be tied
to bikers. Guy Lepage, a Montreal police officer, was a close
lieutenant of Quebec biker leader Maurice (Mom) Boucher and was
eventually arrested and jailed on cocaine trafficking charges.
In Ottawa, RCMP Chief Superintendent Bob Paulson, who heads the
Mounties' Major and Organized Crime Intelligence Branch, said
yesterday's allegations of a cop-turned-biker was part of the
wider intelligence battle between the two sides.
"It's discouraging but it's illustrative of the allure that
biker lifestyle has," he said. "It's equally attractive
to some police officers."
