Jurors hear of 'non-stop' harassment of woman in custody battle with ex-spouse who hired private investigators

After being followed, photographed and intimidated during a week-long visit with her daughter in Calgary in 2012, Shannon Peterson told jurors on Thursday she feared for her safety.

Thursday was the second day of the three-week jury tria for Steve and Heather Walton and Ken Carter, who are accused of criminal harassment, among other charges. 

Steve Walton is a retired CPS officer while his wife, Heather, used to be a civilian member of the service. The couple ran a private investigation firm that was hired by Carter during a bitter custody dispute with his ex, Akele Taylor. 

• Calgary millionaire paid $800,000 to PI firm to 'discredit and harass' ex-spouse, jurors told

Shannon Peterson, who lives in Vancouver, visited her daughter, Akele Taylor, in September 2012, just weeks after Taylor had broken up with Carter.

Peterson testified Thursday afternoon, telling jurors that during her visit she was followed into a grocery store, at a restaurant and at the airport.

On one occasion, Peterson and Taylor were driving on Bow Trail when three people — including Steve Walton, a woman who she believed to be Heather Walton and a third person, in a marked CPS vehicle — boxed-in her daughter's car.

Peterson said her daughter was scared.

"See what's been going on there? It's non-stop," Taylor told her mother.
 

During the week she was staying with Taylor, Peterson said she noticed her daughter wasn't eating very much, was "very sad and stressed" during the visit and would often cry.

Adding to Taylor's stress was the fact that Steve Walton had somehow gained access to her apartment building, Peterson said. One time he banged on her unit door and then held it open when Taylor answered it.

"It was very intimidating," Peterson told jurors.

Carter — who is said to be worth about $80 million — allegedly directed the Waltons to participate in a "campaign to discredit and harass" Taylor, after their breakup in 2012, said prosecutor Katherine Love in her opening statement to the jury.

According to Love, Carter paid the Waltons more than $800,000 for their services in an effort to gain sole custody of the daughter he shared with Taylor. 

Storage unit incident

Earlier on Thursday, Calgary police Const. Michael Phillips testified that on Sept. 12, 2012, he responded to a report of a break-in in progress at a self-storage unit.

When he arrived, he spoke with Taylor and determined it was her own storage locker. 

Phillips then called the number which had phoned police to report the break-in and identified the caller as Heather Walton.

The officer then noticed an SUV cruising the parking lot and ran the plate, which came back as Carter, who he then confronted. 

Carter told him Taylor had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry from him, was affiliated to a gang and was trying to have him killed. 

Then Phillips received a phone call from Steve Walton, who told the officer he was a former CPS member. Walton asked the constable for information on the investigation he'd just conducted but Phillips refused. 

McLachlan refused to attempt drug deal

A former police detective who had left CPS in August 2012 testified that he worked for the Waltons that same year, doing surveillance on Taylor and travelling to Saskatchewan and Vancouver in an effort to track down her relatives.

Shamus McLachlan said after those trips he was asked by Steve Walton to attempt to buy drugs from Taylor. McLachlan said he refused because he didn't want to do anything illegal. 

He was also asked to write a letter pretending to be one of Taylor's ex boyfriends in an effort to intimidate her. McLachlan said he decided not to send the letter before Steve Walton asked him to hold off. 

Under cross-examination, McLachlan told Heather Walton's lawyer, Kelsey Sitar, that as a private investigator nothing about the surveillance assignments struck him as unusual. 

None of the defence lawyers have had the chance to cross-examine Peterson. That will take place on Friday morning.

Alain Hepner represents Steve Walton while Gavin Wolch is Carter's defence counsel. 

Aside from the harassment charge, the Waltons each face charges of bribing an officer, accused of paying police officers to access private information from CPS databases. 

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