Former Alberta MLA not guilty of threatening teens he chased with truck

Former Alberta MLA Derek Fildebrandt fist-pumped from the prisoner's box as a Calgary judge acquitted him on all four counts of uttering threats to a group of 13- and 14-year-old boys whom he chased in a truck through his southwest neighbourhood last spring. 

Although Justice Allan Fradsham found that Fildebrandt did tell the kids "I protect my property and my belongings with a gun," the judge ruled the comment wasn't intended to intimidate.

The incident happened on April 13 around 9 p.m., when a group of teenage boys were lingering on the sidewalk in front of Fildebrandt's house. They were waiting for a friend to join them so they could head to a convenience store for snacks.

Fildebrandt's lawn ornaments had been stolen in the past, and when he spotted a group of teens outside his house, "he concluded, wrongly, that the complainants were either stealing or damaging the ornaments," wrote Fradsham. 

Fildebrandt became enraged when he mistakenly believed the four boys were damaging "No Peeing" and "No Pooping" dog signs on his lawn. 

After a few minutes of watching the boys outside his house, Fildebrandt left his home and began yelling at the teens while shaking his cane in the air.

The boys testified that because he mentioned a gun, they believed the cane he was holding was a rifle. That's what they said caused them to run. 

Fildebrandt then got in his truck and chased the teens. 

He used his truck to block the path of one of the boys who was running away from him. Another boy banged on a neighbour's door for help. 

"Please help, there's somebody that has been following us, he told us he had a gun," the boy told Vanessa Lunse.

Lunse testified that when she confronted Fildebrandt outside her house, he said: "No, I didn't tell them I have a gun. I told them I protect my property with a gun."

Although Fradsham found all of the witnesses credible, the judge ruled that some of their evidence was unreliable, including testimony from Fildebrandt and the boys.

The boys discussed what happened before making police statements "for the innocent purpose of trying to be complete," said Fradsham, but the result was that some of their evidence was "the product of consensus as opposed to actual memory."

The judge also found Fildebrandt's testimony "unreliable."