East St. Paul police downloaded porn: report

Pornographic material, some of it "very disgusting,"has been found on roughly half of the East St. Paulpolice department's computers, according to a confidential report, CBC News has learned.

The report comes from a consultant who examined the contents of the police computers in February.

The Rural Municipality of East St. Paul, 20 kilometres north of Winnipeg, hired Rob Tramley, a former police officer, tolook atthe police department's operations in January, after several officers came forward with a number of concerns.

Tramley then recommended council download information from the hard drives of police computers, Reeve Phil Rebeck told CBC News.

"There may be some things that were going on that we were made aware of that warranted a little further investigation," Rebeck said.

No one on council would comment on the contents of the consultant's report, but CBC News has learned the consultant found that several officers had downloaded pornographic pictures and videos at work.The consultant described some of the pictures and videos as "very disgusting and vulgar."

The consultant wrote that too much time was being spent surfing the internet when the nine officers were expected to be policing the municipality.

He added that half of the computers were clean, but recommended those who had downloaded pornography should be sanctioned.

While Rebeck would not comment on the contents of the report, he said he was surprised by the results.

"We were quite happy with the way the force was running," he said. "We thought everything was going in a manner that we could really appreciate them handling, and it was a shocker when we found out all these problems were there."

Rebeck would not confirm whether any of the officers involved have been disciplined.

Complaints of police misconduct

The consultant's report also examined an unprecedented number of complaints against the force to the Law Enforcement Review Agency (LERA), the body that investigates police misconduct in Manitoba.

Between September 2004 and January 2006, seven people have lodged complaints with LERA about East. St. Paul officers.Past annual reports show the tiny force usually receives no more than one complaint per year.

One of the complaints was filed by St. Clements resident George Morka, who alleged he was thrown to the ground so hard by an East. St. Paul officer that he was knocked unconscious.

Morka told CBC News he had a verbal fight with another motorist last year, and East St. Paul police were called to the scene. Morka said he argued with one of the officers and was ordered out of his vehicle.

"I no sooner had my hand on the door handle and he literally dragged me out of the truck, " Morka said. "The last thing I remember was being taken around to the back of the truck, being thrown to the ground and waking up with handcuffs on me, lying on the ground."

Morka was eventually charged with uttering threats, although the charges were later stayed. He said he arrived home bloodied and bruised and suffering a concussion. He now goes out of his way to avoid traveling through the municipality, he said.

Rebeck said council acted quickly after learning about the many LERA complaints, first hiring the consultant, then making personnel changes.

"We asked the chief to resign and another officer resigned," Rebeck said. "Those are the kinds of things we do when we find there's a problem."

RCMP also investigating

Rebeck would not say exactly why the chief was asked to resign. Former police chief Harry Bakema did not want to comment on any of the LERA complaints.

The RCMP is now conducting its own investigation into two of the LERA complaints.

Residents of East St. Paul are still reeling from the news that a former police officer on the force, Michael Sandham, has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder in connection with a biker massacre in Ontario earlier this year.

Sandham was a police officer in the rural municipality of East St. Paul from June 2000 to October 2002.He resigned after department brass saw photos of him at a biker gathering.

Another former chiefof the department, David Grant, later wroteSandham a letter of reference, which helpedhim secure work at other law-enforcement organizations in the province.