Crucial witness absent in stalking case, defence says

Hearing a stalking case without the alleged victim is akin to watching a movie without the star character, a defence lawyer said Monday.

In final submissions before a Calgary jury, the lawyer for former police detective Steve Walton noted jurors never heard from three critical players.

Among those, said defence counsel Alain Hepner, was Akele Taylor, the woman at the centre of a case involving allegations of police corruption and criminal harassment.

Hepner noted that neither Taylor nor Calgary police officers Bryan Morton and Bradford McNish — who were repeatedly mentioned during the trial — testified during the trial of Walton, his wife Heather and wealthy Calgary businessman Ken Carter.

“Those three characters were not present, did not testify before you,” the lawyer said.

He said hearing the trial without those individuals was like watching a movie without three main characters.

No explanation was given to jurors as to why those three individuals didn’t testify.

Walton, his wife, and Carter are each charged with criminal harassment for allegedly engaging in an ongoing plot to intimidate Taylor in 2012 and 2013, while she was engaged in a custody dispute with Carter over their daughter.

The Waltons also face charges of police bribery and improper storage of restricted weapons, two handguns found in their home.

In her final argument, Crown prosecutor Katherine Love said there was plenty of evidence for jurors to find Taylor was the victim of an intentional campaign of harassment, which included the hiring of Morton and McNish to take part.

Love said if jurors find they were hired by the Waltons for that purpose, then they would be guilty of bribing police officers to engage in illegal activity.

She said there was also evidence Steve Walton paid the two active members of the Calgary Police Service for computer checks on associates of Taylor, which would also amount to bribery.

Love led jurors through a series of text messages she said show there was an ongoing campaign to intimidate Taylor during her custody dispute with Carter.

“What happened to Akele Taylor over those several months was exactly what Mr. and Mrs. Walton and Ken Carter have been charged with and that is criminal harassment.”

Carter’s lawyer, Gavin Wolch, also noted Taylor didn’t testify, leaving jurors unclear on how she felt during that period.