The third Hamilton police officer to testify on charges he faces of falsifying nuisance tickets made a distinction between those offences and the way he might handle paperwork if he apprehended a person committing a criminal offence.

There's a difference between, for example, a robbery – it affects people differently than a guy drinking a beer on a street corner. - Const . Stephen Travale

"There's a difference between, for example, a robbery – it affects people differently than a guy drinking a beer on a street corner," Const. Stephen Travale said.

With 15 years experience in the service, Travale has worked in regular patrol, criminal investigation and on special teams like a targeted effort against illegal gambling. He joined the ACTION team in March 2013.

In the witness box for the first time on Tuesday, Travale echoed testimony from his fellow defendants and other officers who've testified in the trial, which began in November.

Court has heard in the trial that began in November that the ACTION team, a high-visibility foot-and-bicycle squad deployed mostly downtown, runs into many of the same people over and over and repeatedly tickets them for provincial offences like drinking in public and panhandling.

'Didn't seem relevant at the time'

Travale admitted Tuesday he was "disorganized" and sometimes wrote the wrong date for nuisance tickets he wrote to people downtown.

But Travale, who faces charges of falsifying six tickets written between April and September 2014, emphatically denied that he made up any of the tickets.

The highly visible ACTION team is known for its yellow jackets. (Terry Asma/CBC)

Travale acknowledged he didn't have a system for keeping the officer's copy of provincial offence notice tickets. He kept them "all over the place" in his bike bag, his jacket, his duty vest, his patrol locker and maybe other places, too, he admitted.

Assistant Crown attorney David King seized on that revelation as a sign Travale wasn't doing a good job as an officer. He asked what would have happened if one of the people named in the tickets had gone to court to fight it.

I guess it's pretty embarrassing to say I have no idea where my notes are. - Assistant Crown Attorney David King

"You're telling me that you weren't even organized enough to keep your [copies] in one place," he said. "I guess it's pretty embarrassing to say I have no idea where my notes are."

Travale also doesn't have detailed notes about each of the occurrences that is under the microscope in this trial, he said.

"Sometimes you deal with the same people frequently," he said. "Writing additional notes (on the officer's copy of the ticket) didn't seem relevant at the time."

'I was being investigated for something I didn't do'

When Travale was told in September 2014 he was under investigation, he was "angry, stressed out and frustrated," he said.

"I was served a paper that said I was being investigated for something I didn't do," he said.

"I'm at the 11th hour about to get promoted and this comes landing on my doorstep," he said. "I'm angry – any time somebody accuses you of doing something you feel that way. "

He'd been filling in as the team lead on one of the ACTION squads, and even though he was under investigation, he was still going to have to lead the team, his higher-ups said.

I'm at the 11th hour about to get promoted and this comes landing on my doorstep. - Const. Stephen Travale

'You've got to do your best, keep your head up, keep marching the troops forward and keep producing,'" he said they told him.

But first Travale wanted to know what he should do, and advise others to do, when one of the people committing offences refused to take their copy of the ticket. There wasn't a policy at the service for what to do with refused tickets. The whole investigations began when tickets were discovered a few days earlier in the shredder bin. Some officers revealed that's what they did with refused tickets.

In text messages with another constable read aloud in court, Travale compared the period of time after the investigation began to the game show "Survivor". Tuesday, he explained there were rumours flying and "finagling and back-stabbing" going on around the service in the wake of the charges.

But King needled Travale, especially in light of his admission he was so disorganized.

"I guess attention to detail is not something that's required to be on the cusp of being promoted," King said.

Wrong dates on tickets

Travale also said he sometimes wrote the wrong date on tickets, like a ticket to Thomas Groves for having liquor in an open container. The ticket is dated April 15, but Travale made a note in his officer's notebook about giving a ticket to Groves on April 16.

Travale also said he sometimes wrote the wrong date on tickets, like a ticket to Thomas Groves for having liquor in an open container. Groves testified in the trial in November that he'd been given nearly $50,000 in tickets for drinking in public. (Kelly Bennett/CBC)

Travale faces the most charges of the four accused officers. His attorney, Kevin McGilly, requested his client be acquitted in November, saying the testimony of the street-involved people couldn't be relied upon definitively to prove whether the tickets were or weren't written. But Judge Pamela Borghesan struck down his request.

Also charged are constables Bhupesh Gulati, Shawn Smith and Dan Williams. Const. Staci Tyldesley faces related charges and is being tried in a separate proceeding.

The trial continues with more cross-examination of Travale Wednesday. The trial is scheduled to continue Wednesday and Thursday, with closing arguments expected next Friday, Feb. 17.

kelly.bennett@cbc.ca