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Canada - Although some of Dean Rudge's actions were questionable, Judge Harrison Arrell says he was unable to determine without a reasonable doubt that the Niagara Regional Police constable was responsible for leaking confidential information to the Hells Angels.
In a Welland courtroom Thursday, Rudge was acquitted of a breach of trust by a public officer charge stemming from his April 2007 arrest.
The 47-year-old has been with the NRPS since 1985.
He pleaded not guilty to the charge in February of this year and chose to be judged solely by judge.
Rudge was an officer working out of the Port Colborne detachment when police were investigating the Hells Angels through Project Tandem. When raids were executed throughout southern Ontario and in Niagara in 2006, police found that members of the gang were in possession of confidential documents including police memos about the ongoing investigation and information about the rival Outlaws motorcycle gang considering a return to Niagara.
At the Cedar Bay Inn, a property owned by Hells Angels president Ken Wagner and managed by his common-law wife Sandra Taylor, a copy of Rudge's work schedule and his days off were also found.
Reading from his verdict, Arrell said there are no restrictions on officers printing and copying documents. For three months, a monitor was installed on the Port Colborne detachment printer which proved someone under Rudge's password printed seven of the 10 leaked documents.
Some of Rudge's fingerprints were also found on the documents.
"Confidential documents appeared to have been distributed with no specific protocol," Arell said.
"I find it as a fact it would not be uncommon for the office to be empty," Arrell said, noting the detachment's three-digit access pass code was in place for more than two decades. "A lot of people would have had access."
Although there were a number of calls made to Taylor, Arrell said he accepted that calls made to Taylor were to help her daughter get through problems with drugs and her boyfriend.
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