Feds fear judge taking aim at dismissing Calling case
Federal prosecutors say their case against two of Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s top lieutenants could be on a “collision course” with dismissal if a federal judge doesn’t reconsider his proposed jury instructions in the upcoming high-profile trial.
The controversy is over how Judge Leo T. Sorokin is defining the phrase “obtaining property of another” as it relates to Hobbs Act extortion.
Sorokin has ruled that he will explain to a jury that, in order to prove their case, prosecutors will need to show that Kenneth Brissette and Timothy Sullivan — two City Hall officials — personally benefited from property obtained through the alleged crime.
“Should the Court decline to reconsider its order, the government will be on a ‘collision course’ with dismissal, because the evidence the government intends to introduce at trial will be insufficient under the Court’s view of the relevant law,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristina E. Barclay wrote in a motion filed yesterday.
Brissette and Sullivan are accused of pressuring the Boston Calling music festival’s production company into hiring union workers by withholding city permits.
They are due to go to trial March 26, and prosecutors want to have a hearing on their emergency motion next week. If that hearing takes place, prosecutors will be tasked with convincing Sorokin to change his mind.
“The government submits that the instructions as proposed by the Court in its Order are based on an incorrect reading of the law and, unless corrected, will preclude the government from proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Barclay wrote.
Last week, Sorokin declined to dismiss charges against Sullivan and Brissette, but in his decision he explained how he would outline to the jury what it means to personally benefit from a Hobbs Act conspiracy, prompting prosecutors to file the emergency motion.