Officer accused of selling data awaits jury’s verdict
The fate of senior city police Det. Gerard Brand, who is charged with using police databases for personal profit, is now in the hands of a Calgary jury.
The four-woman, eight-man Court of Queen’s Bench jury was given final instructions Thursday morning by Justice Robert Hall, before beginning deliberations in the nearly three-week-old trial.
Brand faces charges of unauthorized use of a computer and breach of trust by a public officer in connection with 2010 allegations he searched names of debtors to a loan company and also on behalf of a friend.
Brand received a payment from Manila Capital of $2,300 after providing an invoice with the names of 22 people who owed Manila money.
But the veteran officer told the court he never used police databases for anything other than his job as an investigator.
In emotional testimony, Brand told jurors he isn’t a criminal.
“No matter what happened here, I love this job, I would do this job for free,” Brand said, of his devotion to the Calgary Police Service.
“For them to accuse me of being a criminal ...” he said, his voice tinged with emotion. “They’re still calling me a criminal five years later,” Brand told the jury.
“I’m not a criminal, I have never been one and I never will be,” he said, occasionally wiping his eyes with tissues.