Prosecutors get extra time to appeal Calling case dismissal
Prosecutors have been granted an extra month to appeal the dismissal of extortion charges that were looming over two top aides of Mayor Martin J. Walsh because the Office of the U.S. Solictor General has not decided whether to pursue the matter.
The feds’ written argument was due today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. They now have until July 11 to file.
“Only the Solicitor General of the United States may decide whether, and to what extent, an appeal may be taken,” prosecutors explained in their request for an extension. “The Solicitor General makes this important decision only after the issues presented by an adverse decision are considered thoroughly by a number of people at many levels of review . ... The Solicitor General has not yet had the opportunity to decide whether or not to pursue this appeal.”
Kenneth Brissette, Walsh’s $99,910 director of tourism, sports and entertainment, and Timothy Sullivan, the $123,624 chief of staff of intergovernmental relations, returned to work shortly after the charges were dropped. They were also released from all pretrial conditions they were under while awaiting trial.
The two men had been facing up to 20 years in prison had they been convicted of using threats to bully Crash Line Productions into hiring unneeded union labor for the 2014 Boston Calling music festival, formerly staged on City Hall Plaza. They were accused of withholding permits and suggesting the event would be disrupted by a giant inflatable rat.
U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin broomed the extortion indictments in March just days short of the case going to trial.
Prosecutors told Sorokin they could not prove their case based on what they argued was his misinterpretation of Hobbs Act extortion. Sorokin refused to reconsider how he would instruct jurors on the law. That disparity is expected to form the basis of the government’s appeal.
Sorokin had planned to say that in order to convict Brissette and Sullivan, the jury had to find the men obtained property from Crash Line — in this case, wages and benefits for International Alliance Of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 11 workers — and that Brissette and Sullivan personally benefited from the alleged scheme.
In stark contrast, the U.S. Supreme Court has held since 1956 that a conviction for Hobbs Act extortion “in no way depends upon having a direct benefit conferred upon the person who obtains the property.”