Accurso, Mascouche mayor were good friends, court told
Corruption trial hears about long history of travel, social contact between the two
JOLIETTE Antonio Accurso and former Mascouche mayor Richard Marcotte were close friends long before Marcotte was elected to the post, a jury was told on Friday.
Accurso’s eldest son, Jimmy Accurso, was called to the witness stand on Friday at the Joliette courthouse where his father is on trial on a charge related to alleged municipal corruption in the city of Mascouche, while Marcotte, who died in 2016, was mayor. Accurso is charged with helping Marcotte commit a breach of trust.
On Wednesday, before he began presenting defence witnesses, lawyer Marc Labelle told the jury that he would present evidence that Marcotte’s now-well-known vacations aboard Accurso’s yacht, called Touch, were nothing more than time spent together between friends.
On Friday, Labelle called two witnesses who backed up the attorney’s argument that the men were very close friends for a long time.
The first was Jimmy Accurso, who worked for Simard Beaudry Construction Inc. during the period — 2006 to 2008 — when Antonio Accurso is alleged to have bribed Marcotte to obtain municipal contracts. Last week, the jury heard evidence that $277,000 from a $300,000 cheque issued by Simard Beaudry Inc. and signed by Antonio Accurso ended up in a Swiss bank account belonging to Marcotte.
“Richard was a man who was friends with my father beyond my memories,” said Jimmy Accurso, who is now 42. He added that his earliest memories of Marcotte — who was first elected mayor of Mascouche in 1992 — were of Marcotte teaching him tennis when he was seven or eight years old, on the exterior tennis court on Accurso’s property in Deux-Montagnes. “He was a close friend to my father.”
The younger Accurso also said that while he was studying at Marianopolis College he would regularly stop by Onyx, his father’s restaurant in Laval, and would often find Marcotte there chatting with his father.
“We talked about life in general. He would say things like ‘How’s school going?’ ” Jimmy Accurso said while adding later that his father did not display a particular interest in municipal politics.
“My father didn’t get involved in elections. He always said we were better off taking care of the politics within our companies,” he said.
The second witness to be called to the stand on Friday was Nicole Garneau, who described her occupation since 2008 as being Antonio Accurso’s governess.
She said her duties include purchasing food for Accurso’s home and serving it. She also purchases other routine things for Accurso to maintain the house.
Garneau said she met Accurso while she worked as a waitress at a hotel in Laval and that she went on to work at his restaurant, between 2000 and 2008, before she worked at his home.
She also said Marcotte was a frequent guest at Onyx and that the conversations he had with Accurso never seemed to be about business.
“(In my experience), if it’s a business dinner everyone gets quiet (when the waitress arrives at a table) because they want to keep things secret. If they are friends (getting together for lunch) they talk out loud,” Garneau said.
The governess also said that when she worked at Accurso’s home, Marcotte would come by every Wednesday evening in the summer with his wife. The two men would play tennis while their wives chatted nearby. Garneau would be on standby, ready to serve wine when it was requested.
“Would they talk business?” Labelle asked in reference to the evenings when the two men played tennis.
“Never,” Garneau replied. “They were good friends.”
Superior Court Justice James Brunton, the presiding judge in the trial, informed the jury on Friday that they will likely begin their deliberations on Feb. 2 or Feb. 5.