Police dug through election candidate's garbage, court hears

Calgary police investigating a municipal election scandal dug through a candidate's garbage and one officer posed as a surveyor to obtain a fingerprint off a clipboard, a court has heard.

At one point, more than 20 officers were assigned to the investigation into the 2004Ward 10 election, Det. Lorne Ferguson testified Monday at the trial of David Aftergood, husband of candidate Margot Aftergood.

Hefaces charges under the Local Authorities Election Act of requesting a ballot in someone else's name and supplying a ballot to another person.

The City of Calgary received 1,266 internet requests for ballots in Ward 10 just before the last municipal election in October 2004. Those requests all asked the city to send mail-in ballots to the same post box in a northeast Calgary strip mall.

Margot Aftergood has said the postal box had been rented by her husband but that they'd done nothing wrong. She said they had simply taken requests from people in the community and obtained ballots on their behalf, passing them along to the voters.

Computers seized from MLA's home

The Calgary police technological crime section learned that all of the requests for the ballots came from two computers, which were later seized from the home ofCalgary Conservative MLA Hung Pham, testified Ferguson, one of the lead investigators on the case.

The computers were owned by Pham'stwo brothers, who also face charges.

Ferguson also testified that the police used surveillance and undercover methods to try to obtain evidence to link David Aftergood with the mail-in ballots.

Three months after the election, officers picked up garbage from the Aftergood's house to look for samples of his handwriting, he said.

An undercover police officer also tried to obtain a fingerprint from David Aftergood by posing as a surveyor and handing him a clipboard with a questionnaire.

Ultimately, Ferguson said, none of the evidence was used in this case.

However, police are still conducting a criminal investigation of the problems with the mail-in ballots in Ward 10, he said.

Margot Aftergood resigned in November after the city agreed to pay 60 per cent of her legal costs.

In total, five people were charged under the Elections Actin connection with theinvestigation.