Judge’s ruling on Hobbs Act opens door to dismissal of extortion case
The extortion trial of City Hall officials Kenneth Brissette and Timothy Sullivan has been canceled as a federal judge decides whether to dismiss the case.
Prosecutors told Judge Leo T. Sorokin yesterday they cannot prove their case based on what they charge is his misinterpretation of Hobbs Act extortion.
The defense promptly responded with a motion to dismiss, which the government said it would not fight.
Prosecutors may yet try to salvage their case by appealing Sorokin’s ruling that he would not reconsider his interpretation of the law.
Jury selection was supposed to begin Monday at U.S. District Court in South Boston.
Earlier yesterday, the feds suggested Brissette and Sullivan broke the law to curry favor with Mayor Martin J. Walsh and his powerful labor constituency.
Brissette, director of tourism, sports and entertainment, and Sullivan, Walsh’s chief of staff for intergovernmental relations, face charges they bullied a production company into hiring unwanted union workers in 2014 for the Boston Calling music festival by withholding permits and suggesting the popular event would be disrupted by a giant inflatable rat.
Prosecutors stated yesterday for the first time that “the public interest would be served by resolving this issue prior to trial.” They did not indicate whether a plea deal is in the works. The government’s case against Brissette and Sullivan has been on thin ice because Sorokin planned to instruct jurors that in order to convict Walsh’s lieutenants of Hobbs Act extortion, they must find the men obtained property from Crash Line Productions and then personally benefited from the alleged scheme — the latter prong a critical point the feds concede they cannot prove.
Sorokin, who assistant U.S. Attorneys Laura Kaplan and Kristina Barclay assert has “misinterpreted the law,” stands resolute in his decision despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has held since 1956 that conviction “in no way depends upon having a direct benefit conferred upon the person who obtains the property.”
Kaplan and Barclay asked Sorokin to rule on whether the evidence they plan to present at trial shows Brissette and Sullivan, through their actions, obtained property from Crash Line by forcing the company to pay Local 11 workers wages and benefits.
Walsh spokeswoman Laura Oggeri declined comment.