Businessman and former Calgary cop must begin serving prison time

A former Calgary police officer and a neighborhood businessman should flip themselves in inside 48 hours to start serving their sentences for felony harassment of a girl who was stalked throughout a bitter custody dispute.

Steve Walton, 65, and Ken Carter, 71, have been discovered responsible of harassment in 2018. Walton was additionally discovered responsible of bribing a police officer, as was his spouse, Heather.

Walton and Carter have been every handed a three-year jail sentence whereas Heather was given 15 months on home arrest.

On Thursday, the Alberta Court docket of Attraction rejected the trio’s bid to have their convictions overturned after arguments have been heard in January.

The Waltons have been operating an unlicensed personal investigation and safety firm in 2012 when Carter employed them amid his break up along with his ex-girlfriend, Akele Taylor.

Carter and Taylor shared custody of an toddler daughter on the time, and the companies offered by the Waltons and their staff — a lot of them energetic, suspended or retired Calgary cops — morphed right into a marketing campaign to assist Carter safe sole custody of his daughter.

The harassment included accessing police databases for data on Taylor, following her after putting a GPS monitoring machine on her automobile and providing her associates, household and associates cash in alternate for unfavorable data on her.

Over the course of about 18 months, Carter paid practically $1,000,000 to the Waltons.

Six folks, together with the Waltons and Carter, have been charged criminally in 2016. Two separate trials occurred.

Throughout the 2018 trial, Taylor’s mom testified her daughter turned so harassed through the harassment interval that she turned suicidal.

Ultimately, all six have been convicted of assorted crimes linked to the harassment of Taylor and the associated police corruption.

After Carter was convicted in 2018, he left for Russia, the place he spent seven months and missed his sentencing listening to, telling the courtroom he had fallen in poor health in that nation .

Carter was lastly sentenced in 2020.

A 3rd trial concluded earlier this month with Carter and Walton acquitted on perjury charges. The pair had been accused of mendacity underneath oath about their enterprise relationship throughout Carter’s household courtroom trial in 2014.

Now that their conviction appeals have been handled, Carter and Walton’s sentence appeals will probably be argued.