HALIFAX - Legal proceedings continue Tuesday for three of the four men charged following a police investigation into alleged spending abuses by Nova Scotia politicians.
One current and two former members of the legislature are scheduled to appear in Halifax provincial court.
Former Conservative Richard Hurlburt returns for election and plea, while a preliminary hearing date is expected to be set for former Liberal Russell MacKinnon, who elected trial by Supreme Court judge alone during an April court appearance.
Hurlburt, a former cabinet minister, faces three counts of uttering a forged document.
MacKinnon faces 10 counts, one each of fraud and breach of trust, while the remaining eight are related to uttering false expense accounts.
A preliminary hearing is also expected to be set for independent member Trevor Zinck, who last month pleaded not guilty to charges of theft over $5,000, fraud over $5,000 and breach of trust.
A fourth man charged, former Liberal Dave Wilson, has a July 7 court date for election and plea.
Wilson faces 31 charges of uttering forged documents and one count each of breach of trust and fraud.
The allegations against the four men are yet to be proven in court.
RCMP laid the charges in February after a nine-month criminal investigation. The probe began after auditor general Jacques Lapointe handed over forensic audit files on specific transactions involving five former and one current member of the legislature.
Details of the allegations made in Lapointe's audit are not known.
The audit was a follow up to a report Lapointe released in February, 2010 that uncovered several cases of excessive and inappropriate spending of constituency funds allotted to the 52 members of the legislature.
In the initial report, Lapointe alleged politicians had spent thousands of dollars on a wide rage of items, from home installed generators and big-screen TVs to custom-made furniture and espresso makers.
The report looked at spending by members of the legislature between July 2006 and June 2009.
