Former Alberta UCP MLA Derek Fildebrandt faces criminal charges, accused of threatening a group of teenagers, CBC News has learned.
Fildebrandt, 38, who is now the publisher of the Western Standard news website, faces four charges of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, according to court documents.
According to police, just before 9 p.m. on April 13, 2024, four teens ages 13 and 14 were walking to a nearby convenience store.
They stopped outside Fildebrandt’s southwest Calgary home to wait for a friend.
Facts ‘exaggerated,’ says Fildebrandt’s lawyer
Fildebrandt then approached the teens.
“He believed they were responsible for vandalizing his property,” according to a statement from the Calgary Police Service.
“When confronted, the boys fled and the man allegedly chased them in his vehicle and threatened them.”
A neighbour intervened and Fildebrandt returned to his home, police said.
Fildebrandt has hired senior defence lawyer Alain Hepner, who said his client was injured, “limping and using a cane.”
“The facts are very much exaggerated, and context of the events will be very significant at the trial,” said Hepner.
“There will be a trial to air out the entire narrative and he will definitely be pleading not guilty on all charges.”
Charges laid weeks after incident
The court records show that on April 13, 2024, Fildebrandt is accused of threatening the boys.
The documents show Fildebrandt was charged more than two weeks after the alleged incident.
Fildebrandt’s release conditions include that he not have any contact or communication with the four teens.
This isn’t Fildebrandt’s first run-in with the justice system.
In August 2017, plagued by a series of controversies, he quit the UCP caucus.
Illegal hunting incident
Fildebrandt apologized and repaid more than $2,500 after it was revealed he was subletting his Edmonton apartment on Airbnb while claiming his taxpayer-funded housing allowance as an MLA.
He also resigned as the party’s finance critic.
That was followed by the revelation that Fildebrandt was facing a hit-and-run charge for colliding with a van in a parking lot and driving away. In December 2018, Fildebrandt was fined $400 after he was convicted of hit an run under the provincial Traffic Safety Act
Two months after that, Fildebrandt pleaded guilty to shooting a deer on private land. On Feb. 2, 2018, he was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine in connection with the deer incident.
That same day, then-UCP leader Jason Kenney announced Fildebrandt would not be allowed to rejoin caucus after he’d stepped down six months earlier.