Walsh aides lose bid to toss extortion case

Two of Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s top lieutenants who face an upcoming extortion trial suffered a major legal blow yesterday when a federal judge denied several defense motions, including their latest request that the case be dismissed.

In a 13-page order filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, Judge Leo T. Sorokin noted that tourism director Kenneth Brissette and intergovernmental affairs chief Timothy Sullivan, accused of extorting a music festival to hire unneeded union labor, argue that this is a “once-ina-blue-moon criminal case in which dismissal is warranted.” Brissette and Sullivan are both on paid leave from their City Hall jobs.

“According to the defendants, the indictment does not describe a crime because it fails to allege the wages at issue were paid for ‘fictitious’ services,” the judge noted, “and it further fails to allege that the wages were paid to the defendants themselves.”

But in denying the motion to dismiss, Sorokin countered the “‘heavy burden’ placed on a defendant seeking dismissal has not eased.”

The judge also denied Brissette’s request to exclude allegations of his involvement in a dispute between another local union and companies filming the “Top Chef” reality TV show in Boston in 2014. Four members of that union were tried and ultimately acquitted of extortion charges.

But Sorokin said prosecutors have argued that at least some “Top Chef” evidence would be both relevant and admissible in this case.

The judge likewise denied Sullivan’s motion that he and Brissette be tried separately.

Sullivan argued that he would suffer an “undue risk of guilt by association with Brissette and the Top Chef allegations” but “has not shown a serious risk that his right to a fair trial will be compromised” if they are tried together, Sorokin wrote.