She was accused of threatening a former Alberta justice minister, others — until a spoofed email came to light

A Calgary woman accused of sending five emails that threatened former Alberta justice minister Jonathan Denis, his mother and several of his friends has seen those charges dropped after evidence was revealed in court that one of the emails was sent through an email-spoofing website based in the Czech Republic and police determined the other four were “not authentic.”

Andrea Petzold was acquitted on four counts of uttering threats in one trial and saw charges of extortion and uttering threats stayed, ahead of a second trial.

“I feel I was set up. I feel I was framed,” said Petzold, 45, who has always maintained she didn’t send the emails that led to her arrests.

The actual origin of the emails remains unknown.

The case reveals “a vulnerability” in the justice system, said Doug King, a criminal justice professor at Mount Royal University, who believes police services and Crown prosecutors need to be more diligent when dealing with digital evidence.

“Whoever was doing the investigation, it didn't cross their mind that this could have been a fake email — a spoof email,” he said.

“Police agencies can't be perfect in terms of keeping up with technology, but they still have to show due diligence.”

Key details surrounding the charges against Petzold remained under a publication ban for more than a year.

That ban lifted with the conclusion of her second trial in early November, which ended when she pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited firearm and accepted a six-month conditional sentence to be served in the community.

The firearm charge was laid after Cochrane RCMP executed a search warrant at Petzold’s home in 2023, as part of their investigation into a threatening email they believed at the time to have come from Petzold. While investigators were in her home, they found a Glock handgun that she didn’t have a valid licence for, along with several magazines of ammunition.

Petzold’s lawyers told the court the gun belonged to someone else but, in an agreed statement of facts, she admitted she was “reckless or willfully blind” to the fact it was in her home.

Petzold faced two trials from two sets of investigations into threatening emails: one by Cochrane RCMP and one by the Calgary Police Service (CPS).

The email that led to Petzold’s arrest by RCMP was received by Marguerite Denis, Jonathan’s mother, on April 1, 2023.

It read, in part: “I'm going to get Jonathan disbarred and burn his house down. I know where you live, and I will keep posting your address unless you pay me a substantial sum. I have more evidence that will make you want to leave the city and make all of your lives a living he’ll (sic) … You have no way but to pay me.”