CORRUPTION TRIAL
Three officers face charges
The woman at the centre of a Calgary police corruption trial was the victim of ongoing harassment as part of an investigation into her private life, a prosecutor said Monday.
Crown lawyer Leah Boyd said Akele Taylor was targeted after the father of her child hired a private investigator to look into her.
Boyd told Justice Bryan Mahoney there was “extreme, overt surveillance of Ms. Taylor for many months.”
The prosecutor alleged unlawful computer checks were conducted by members of the Calgary Police Service on Taylor, her friends and family.
Facing charges of bribery and unlawful ly using a police computer system are Anthony Braile, Bryan Morton and Bradford McNish.
Braile faces an additional charge of criminal harassment and McNish an extra allegation of breach of trust by a public officer, while Morton faces both additional accusations.
The charges stem from incidents between Aug. 11, 2012, and 2015.
All three entered not guilty pleas at the start of proceedings on Monday.
Boyd, in a brief opening address before the Court of Queen’s Bench judge, told Mahoney that Taylor’s ex, Kenneth Carter, hired former police officer Steve Walton to investigate Taylor during a custody battle over their child.
She said the custody battle between Taylor and Carter was “protracted and acrimonious.”
Boyd said the private investigation conducted by Walton on Taylor included the payment for information to the three accused.
She said McNish was given thousands of dollars, while Braile and Morton received tens of thousands of dollars.
The prosecutor said there were communications with Taylor’s family and friends .“People ... beingoffered money to talk about her and say negative things about her,” Boyd said. “Police resources were used to engage in this campaign of harassment.”
The accused used the police computer system to dig up information on Taylor and those who knew her.
“There were numerous queries on Ms. Taylor, on her acquaintances, on her friends,” Boyd said.
“These activities that were done ... were done while on duty.”
Braile was under suspension at the time, but still with the police service, while the other two were actively conducting police work.
“Mr. McNish even did queries while he was on workers’ compensation,” she said.
Morton used police vehicles during some of the surveillance work,
Meanwhile, in evidence, court heard Braile swore an affidavit for a lawyer preparing legal action against the Calgary Police Service on behalf of Taylor.
Francisco Torres said he was asked to interview Braile by senior counsel Clive Llewellyn.
“I was given instructions to meet with him,” Torres told co-prosecutor Julie Snowdon.
“What I understood was Mr. Braile was interested in sharing his story and that there was a risk that Mr. Braile may take his own life,” Torres said.
“So I was instructed to get his story on an affidavit.”
Torres said in getting the affidavit from Braile he warned him about perjury law and told him the document couldn’t be divulged by him without the accused’s permission.
He told Snowdon he didn’t anticipate being subjected to a subpoena to produce the affidavit when he gave that advice.
Braile’s lawyer, Pat Fagan, is challenging the admissibility of the sworn statement given by his client to Torres.
And in other evidence, the primary detective from the anti-corruption unit investigating the case said the allegations included that Taylor was tailed for two years.
“There was an effort to generate information to show that she was an unfit mother,” Det. Todd Nichols said.
Nichols said it was believed Braile looked at purchasing Taylor’s home “in order to install listening devices.”
The trial of the three accused is scheduled for four weeks.
Carter, Walton and Walton’s wife, Heather, are scheduled to face their own trial in September.