A former UCP and Wildrose MLA has been charged with uttering threats to a group of teenagers in Calgary.
Police allege Derek Fildebrandt threatened four teenagers, aged 13 and 14, outside of his home on Apr. 13.
Investigators allege the group were on their way to a convenience store when the 38-year-old Fildebrandt chased them in his vehicle and threatened them. Police say Fildebrandt claims the teens vandalized his property.
Fildebrandt, now the publisher of conservative media website the Western Standard, says in a statement he confronted the teens with a cane in his hand and told them to stay off his property.
“I called the police in order for them to give the vandals a talking-to and not have charges placed against them,” reads the statement. “To avoid the consequences of vandalizing my property, these people concocted a story to the police that I had threatened them and — outrageously — even chased them with a shotgun.”
The former MLA has been in legal trouble before, in 2017 he was found guilty in a hit-and-run. A few months later he pleaded to guilty to illegally shooting a deer on private land.
Fildebrandt was elected as the MLA for Strathmore-Brooks in 2015. He lost his seat in the 2019 provincial election.