2-year campaign funded to track down and prosecute millionaire's ex, Calgary police corruption trial heard

After she split from her common-law husband, Akele Taylor said she was afraid her millionaire ex had funded a two-year campaign of stalking and harassment, prosecutors said, according to current and former Calgary police officers.

“It was scary. I felt hopeless,” Taylor said.

Taylor testified Thursday on the fourth day of the Calgary corruption trial of Tony Brail, Brian Morton and Brad McNish.

The three are accused of working for a private investigation firm hired by Ken Carter, Taylor's ex-common-law husband, worth an estimated $80 million.

The trio is charged with bribery and unauthorized use of a computer system. Brail and Morton are also charged with criminal harassment, and Morton and McNish are each charged with breach of trust.

All the alleged offenses stem from activities between 2012 and 2015, during which time all three were officers with the Calgary Police Service, but Brail was suspended for unrelated matters.

Taylor's testimony so far has focused mainly on retired CPS officer Steve Walton and his wife Heather, who owns a private investigation firm, and his main client, Ken Carter. All three will be tried on similar charges in September.

In August 2012, Taylor revealed that she had declared war on Carter after her breakup.

According to Taylor, he not only wanted her to make a “financial settlement” to leave, but also to leave her 13-month-old daughter with her.

According to Taylor, Carter said that if he didn't work out, he would “spend every last dime and every cent after him for 10, 20, 30 years until I do something wrong,” and then he would arrest me.

“It's going to be a war, so get ready,” he was told.

After the divorce, the former couple had 50/50 custody of their daughter. According to Taylor, Carter was told by Steve Walton to pick up his daughter, somehow getting into her secure condominium building and walking up to her door.

The story continues

In September 2012, Taylor described an incident in his storage unit. While sitting in his car, he was suddenly surrounded by police cars and told to get out. Officers said someone reported the theft of property from his vehicle to police. Finally, he spotted Carter and Walton nearby.

Taylor says she filed a complaint with CPS, but nothing came of it.

Within a month of the breakup, Taylor said she found out she was being followed. Carter gives statements to the court describing his movements: “He always knew where I was.”

On several occasions, she says she spotted Walton inside her secure park.

“I feared for my life”

In November, Taylor's best friend was walking home from the gym when she was stopped by Heather Walton, who offered an envelope containing $10,000 for information on Taylor.

“I never thought Ken would make it this far,” Taylor said. “I was scared, I didn't know what he was going to do next.”

Again, Taylor said — at the time, “frustrated and disturbed — she called the police.”

The officer came and he and his friend filed a complaint. After that officer left, Taylor said she saw him run into Walton as he was leaving the condominium building. The two seemed to be fighting; Walton appeared to be angry with the constable, Taylor said.

According to Taylor, the “search” continued: “At this point I was afraid for my life.”

Taylor says she called the police regularly, about 15 times at the time. Walton, who somehow found out, said if he continued, he would be charged with mischief.

GPS tracking device on Taylor's car

Believing her phone was tapped and feeling like Calgary police couldn't or wouldn't help, Taylor says she felt hopeless.

He started borrowing friends' cars, parking in other apartment dwellers' spaces, taking taxis and leaving his house under cover of darkness. He changed his phone number and brought his car to a mechanic to see if there was a GPS tracker. Although one was not found at the time, prosecutors Leah Boyd and Julie Snowdon say a tracking device was eventually found in Taylor's car.

One day, after returning her daughter to Carter, Taylor says she and her mother were leaving for dinner when three cars suddenly surrounded her and boxed her in. Steve and Heather Walton were each driving, and the third was a police officer. car. They eventually let him drive away, he said.

Taylor's mother took photographs of the incident, which were shown in court.

“It took me a while. I didn't know what was going to happen next,” Taylor said.

In October or November 2012, Walton Taylor, his daughter, and a friend were having dinner at a pizza place in Boston. He wanted Taylor to give him his daughter. He recorded the fight on video.

Taylor says she felt “broken and scared” and became depressed: “My life was just a trial and then being watched and watched and persecuted.”

Magistrates convinced Taylor that he was unstable, dangerous and a drug dealer, the court heard

Meanwhile, the litigation continued; There were periods when Carter was able to convince various judges that Taylor was unstable, dangerous and, in one case, a drug dealer. Sometimes the custody of the ex-spouses was 50/50, and sometimes he did not see his daughter for months.

Taylor got his hopes up when Carter said he called a mediator.

She came to the coffee shop to meet him, but he repeated the same threat: Take Carter's money, leave his girlfriend and leave town, or “you're going to regret it,” Taylor says.

Taylor says she learned the mediator was from a small town in Texas, and when she Googled his name, she learned he had been charged with several sex crimes against children.

According to Taylor, the broker lived with Carter and their daughter.

Carter demanded $1.5 million from Taylor

After a 30-minute meeting, the mediator wrote that Taylor was dangerous and mentally ill and should not be allowed to be alone with her daughter.

A Calgary judge took 50 percent of her custody and ordered Taylor to be on visitation only. Carter unsuccessfully proposed to Heather Walton to act as supervisor.

Carter then filed a lawsuit. Taylor and her parents sued for $1.5 million for misrepresenting the character.

When Taylor flew to Edmonton for a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation after losing her custody, she says she spotted Morton and Steve Walton outside her hotel.

Judge Brian Mahoney heard evidence from Taylor's lawyer that Brail was a whistleblower who felt guilty after stalking the alleged victim for a year and exposing the group's activities, first to Taylor and then to the police.

Pat Fagan, Paul Brunnen and Jim Lutz, representing Brail, McNish and Morton, had not yet had a chance to cross-examine Taylor as testimony continued Friday.

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