Serious allegations levelled against prosecution in case of former Calgary cop accused of corruption

Tensions were high in a Calgary courtroom on Friday as the trial for a former Calgary police officer and two others accused of corruption, bribery and harassment threatened to go off the rails, while serious accusations were made against the Crown prosecutor's office by one of the defence lawyers involved.

The first available trial dates for the four week trial are in 2018, putting any further delays at risk of all charges being stayed following the Supreme Court's Jordan decision.

That decision meansdefence lawyers can now apply to have charges tossed out if the case has gone longer than thehard timelines imposed by the country's highest court on what is considered an unreasonable delay.

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Defence lawyers for Steve Walton, his wife Heather Walton and Ken Carter, a client of their private investigation firm, attempted to refuse to book trial dates because they said the prosecution hadn't handed over important documents related to the case.

"They direct indicted on charges that should never have been direct indicted and now they're feeling the Jordan pressure," said Carter's lawyer Hersh Wolch who also indicatedhe wants to apply to have his client tried separately.

Wolch said he intends to bring forward an abuse of process motion against the Crown's office for direct indicting his client which means defence won't have the opportunity to test the credibility of a key witnessat a preliminary inquiry.

Because of missingdisclosuredocuments detailing the Crown's case against the accused defence lawyers tried to argue they shouldn't yet be forced to set trial dates.

Wolchsays he asked for the information in a nine-page letter to the prosecution.

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'This matter needs some attention'

But Justice David Gates and Crown prosecutorIwonaKukliczargued the trial needed to be scheduled immediately because of a serious backlog and defence lawyersWolch, AlainHepnerand Kelsey Sitar were ordered to return Friday afternoon to nail down a date.

"We need to get this case under some kind of planning," said Gates."This matter needs some attention."

Retired officerSteve Walton, who was with the CPS from 1978 to 2003, started a private investigation firm and was contracting other current and formerofficers for jobs likesurveillance oras guards.

It's alleged he asked current members to use the CPS computer system to run searchesfor him. A client of Walton's, Ken Carter, 65, faces criminal harassment and perjury related to services allegedly provided by the Walton's PI firm in a domestic matter.

• Calgary police officers charged in corruption probe

A total of sixpeople facecharges related to the investigation.

Steve Walton faces charges of criminal harassment, bribing an officer,a charge related to the storage of firearms and perjury.

Heather Walton, who worked for CPS as a civilian, faces the same charges exceptperjury.

Const. Bryan Mortoncriminal harassment, breach of trust, briberyand unauthorized use of a computer system.

Sgt. Bradford McNishbreach of trust, briberyand unauthorized use of a computer system.

Tony Braile who was fired by the Calgary policein February for professional misconduct relatingto a 2008 high speed chaseis also charged withcriminal harassment, breach of trust andbribery.

The specialized prosecution branch of the Edmonton Crown's office is handling the case to avoid a conflict because of the involvement of local police officers. Kuklicz was in court on Friday on behalf of her Edmonton counterpart.

Kuklicz said Wolch's letter was only sent at the end of Septemberand the list of requested documents is lengthy. The Edmonton Crown's office, she said, is "working on it."

Morton, McNish and Braile's trial will start Feb. 4, 2018.

Wolch, Hepner and Sitar will be back in court Friday afternoon to book a trial date for the Waltons and Carter.