Former Edmonton mayoral candidate gets house arrest

A former Edmonton mayoral candidate has been handed an eight-month conditional sentence after pleading guilty to attempting to obstruct justice, mischief and possession of stolen property.

Curtis Penner, who pleaded guilty to the charges earlier this week in Leduc Provincial Court, was sentenced to the eight-month conditional sentence, four months of which is to be served as house arrest.

The 38-year-old Penner, who entered Edmonton’s 2013 race for mayor on a platform concerned with preserving green spaces, admitted to breaking into a car owned by a couple with whom he had business dealings and parked at the Edmonton International Airport, taking items from it, and then attempting to bribe the couple into burying that case along with previous legal disputes that had arisen between them.

According to facts read out in court, Dec. 25, 2015, surveillance video at the airport captured a white truck parking directly behind the victim’s vehicle, a black Acura.

The driver, Penner, then set up pylons at the front and rear of the Acura, before smashing the window and popping the hood.

Penner cut the Acura’s battery wires, shutting off the vehicle’s flashers.

He then left the scene, before returning to the car an hour later to take items from inside the vehicle.

The value of the stolen items was less than $5,000.

The owner of the Acura was contacted by authorities. He was in New Brunswick at the time, but told police the only person he knew who drove a white truck was Penner. Later, the owner’s partner reviewed the footage with police and identified the man as Penner.

Penner turned himself in to the airport’s RCMP detachment and was arrested, though he would go on to enter a not guilty plea in court.

The next month, Penner offered to return the stolen property if the victim would help have the charges dropped by signing a false affidavit, saying Penner was allowed to remove items from his vehicle.

Penner also offered to sign another affidavit withdrawing a civil suit against the man in Edmonton courts.

The conversation was video- and audio-recorded, and Penner was captured admitting to having broken into the vehicle and stealing the items.

On Jan. 25, 2016, the three met at a coffee shop where the affidavits were to be handed to Penner.

The exchange was again recorded, and Penner told the couple he was willing to lie on the stand, and only if his defence was not working would he use the affidavits.

The couple did not give Penner the affidavits, leaving him an envelope filled with miscellaneous papers instead, then left to report the exchange to police.

Police, now possessing evidence that Penner attempted to manipulate the judicial process, laid the obstruction charge against Penner.

Judge Stan Peck said the case seemed like a “business relationship gone bad.”

Penner is a real estate developer and has owned several businesses in Edmonton. He dropped out of the mayoral race two months before election day in 2013 to, as he said, focus more on his green space advocacy. He has no previous criminal record, another mitigating factor emphasized by his lawyer.