Alleged stalking victim acted suspiciously, court hears
Former detective says he watched what appeared to be distribution of drugs
Alleged stalking victim Akele Taylor engaged in behaviour consistent with drug trafficking, one of the people charged with criminally harassing her testified Thursday.
Steve Walton, a former drug unit detective with the Calgary Police Service, testified he witnessed what he felt was suspicious conduct while doing surveillance work on Taylor.
“I watched … what appeared to be distribution of drugs,” Walton told a Calgary jury, while being cross-examined by the lawyer for co-accused Ken Carter.
Walton described conduct he called “dusting off,” when a suspect under police watch tries to “determine if there is surveillance.”
“On one occasion I watched Ms. Taylor ‘dust off ’ surveillance,” said Walton.
Walton is charged along with his wife, Heather, and Carter with criminal harassment for allegedly engaging in an ongoing campaign against Taylor in a bid to get her to back off in a child custody dispute.
Carter and Taylor split up in 2012, shortly after she gave birth to the daughter they share.
Under cross-examination by Carter’s lawyer, Gavin Wolch, Walton had negative comments about his observations of Taylor while he was conducting surveillance on her.
Walton said one of his duties while working for Carter in 2012 and 2013 was to assist in parental exchanges between his client and Taylor.
He suggested Taylor seemed less than interested in the child.
“I never once heard her speak her daughter’s name in my presence,” Walton said.
“It was always ‘the baby.’” Along with the stalking charge, Walton and his wife also face allegations of police bribery for allegedly paying for private information from CPS databanks.
Crown prosecutor Ryan Persad grilled Walton on payments he made to Const. Bryan Morton, who was hired by the accused to assist in his security business.
Persad noted an email exchange between the accused and Morton discussed the names of 10 individuals supplied by a former boyfriend of Taylor’s.
Persad suggested Walton was paying Morton $500 a name to run those individuals through the police CPIC database and report back to him.
Walton agreed he sent Morton a cheque on June 12, 2013, for $5,000, but insisted it was for security work.
“I suggest to you, you were in fact paying Mr. Morton $500 per CPIC inquiry,” Persad said to Morton. “No, that’s not true,” Walton said. Morton admitted he’d used police databases in the past for personal use, but said that was during a different era when police culture wasn’t as strict.