A former lawman who in 2017 bartered with an alleged top flight member of the Klansman gang for two of the criminal outfit’s best rifles in return for the release of reputed leader Andre “Blackman” Bryan on Monday defended his actions, calling them “unconventional” rather than outright lying.

The former police officer, a retired detective inspector, had last week testified during the ongoing trial of 33 alleged members of the gang that Stephanie Christie, also known as Mumma, had in September 2017 approached him with an offer of $100,000 to spring Bryan, who had been held for questioning.

He said he countered that bribe with a demand of his own for “two tall-up, tall-up crissas” (brand new rifles) as payback instead, to which Christie animatedly agreed, swearing on her child’s life that when Bryan, whom she said was her partner, was released from custody, the gang would give him the guns.

He further said upon telling Bryan of the encounter with Christie and the arrangement to get the two rifles, Bryan laughed and said, “Cool man, nuh worry yuhself bout dat.” He said upon asking Bryan for a contact number, he supplied him with one that he recognised as one of those given to him by Christie.

On Monday, under intense cross-examination by senior attorney Lloyd McFarlane who represents Bryan, the lawman maintained that he negotiated with Christie in that manner because he wanted to “get the guns off the street”.

McFarlane chided the lawman for using deception to elicit that pledge from Christie and his client, arguing that the former cop understood that since the police had nothing with which to charge Bryan, at that point he already knew they would have to release him later that day.

“You were going to let him go. Why would he come back with two firearms? Him like yuh?” McFarlane asked disdainfully.

“You would have to ask him that,” the former cop shot back.

“I’m asking you,” McFarlane fired back before going further to charge that the cop, by his own admissions, “had no earthly reason to hold” Bryan.

“You released him because you had no basis for holding him. Why yuh didn’t tell that to Mumma when she was asking you?” McFarlane demanded.

“Because I wanted to get information from her,” the former lawman replied coolly.

“Oh, so you just lied to her,” McFarlane said testily.

“If you want to call it lying. You are calling it lying, sir. I would call it unconventional methods,” the former detective inspector responded.

McFarlane went on to accost the lawman over what he said were discrepancies and omissions in his statement regarding the time he supposedly interviewed Bryan as against what he told the court in his testimony.

He ended his blistering cross-examination with a caustic and rhetorical, “Is it only fair to say that the only reason we should not describe you as a lying policeman is because you are no longer a policeman?”

Last week the retired inspector of police, who was the only witness capable of formally identifying the accused Jason Brown, alias City Puss and Lucifer, five months into the trial described how he had to disassociate himself from the police stationed in Spanish Town in order to gain the trust of those being extorted by the alleged gangster. On Monday the former detective inspector, who had spent 31 years in the constabulary, went on to detail for the court other occasions on which he had seen Brown (who is presently serving time for another matter) and heard him speak.

On one occasion in 2018 he said Brown, who was brought to Spanish Town courthouse to be charged along with other alleged members of the outfit, “started behaving in a boisterous manner”, forcing the court to temporarily recess.

“He was shouting, saying him don’t even know dem man yah weh wi a charge him wid. He started his tantrum from he entered the courtroom to when he entered the dock. I would say he continued for an estimated 10 to 15 minutes, and they tried to calm him down,” the former lawman said. He told the court that even after Brown was escorted to the holding area he was “hurling expletives” and threats similar to those he had voiced when threatening victims who he was supposedly extorting over the phone.

Defence attorneys will today resume their cross-examination of the former cop when the matter resumes at 10:00 am in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston.