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Saturday, February 9, 2013

CANADA - Cop’s explanations don’t add up: Crown

OFF THE WIRE
WELLAND - The explanations Frank Dean Rudge has provided in court during his breach of trust trial “simply don’t fit together,” Crown attorney Robin Flumerfelt told him Thursday.

If the Niagara Regional Police officer accused of leaking information to the Hells Angels was only interested in helping a teenage girl, Flumerfelt wondered why there are very few records of his efforts to help her.

Flumerfelt questioned why telephone records show that most of the phone calls between Rudge and the girl’s mother, Sandra Taylor, coincide with a time when he was printing confidential police documents that were later found in the possession of the Hells Angels.

Taylor was the common-law wife of Ken Wagner, a full patch member of the Hells Angels.

Flumerfelt completed his cross-examination of Rudge in a Welland courtroom Thursday.

Flumerfelt said phone records between Rudge and Taylor were sporadic until the winter and spring of 2006 when Rudge was printing confidential documents. Flumerfelt said there was another “flurry” of phone calls between them in early 2007 when police were arresting Hells Angels members and preparing a court case against them.

Rudge again denied providing the documents to the gaxxx.

“I wouldn’t knowingly permit documents that have my fingerprints all over them to be handed off to anyone who wasn’t authorized to have them,” Rudge said.

Flumerfelt also questioned Rudge about numerous phone calls made years earlier to Shayne Thompson — a man described to the court as a well-known Port Colborne criminal. Many of those phone calls were made when Rudge was off duty, Flumerfelt added.

“You didn’t put anything in your reports that you were kind of chummy with Shayne Thompson. He’s your pal,” Flumerfelt said.

“No sir,” Rudge replied. “I take great exception to the word ‘chummy.’”

Rudge testified most of those calls Flumerfelt cited were made to speak to Thompson’s mother, efforts to build trust with the family prior to arresting Shayne Thompson.

Rudge was acquitted of breach of trust by a public officer charges in 2010, but a second trial was ordered when the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned the decision in December 2011.

The trial continues Tuesday.

http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/2013/02/07/cops-explanations-dont-add-up-crown