Trial for City Hall figures starts Monday

Two of Mayor Martin Walsh’s lieutenants will finally head to trial Monday after a federal judge denied another attempt by the men to have the extortion case dismissed.

Lawyers for Boston tourism chief Kenneth Brissette and director of intergovernmental relations Timothy Sullivan argued for a third time Monday in U.S. District Court in Boston for a dismissal of their case. The pair are charged with extortion under the Hobbs Act, accused of bullying concert organizer Crash Line Productions into hiring unneeded union labor for the 2014 Boston Calling music festival at City Hall Plaza.

Federal Judge Leo Sorokin made his ruling on multiple motions Tuesday in a court filing, which also denied several other motions by the pair’s lawyers, including requests to bar certain testimony and the use of the term “City Hall” by attorneys to avoid ambiguity during the trial, which is expected to last two weeks.

Sorokin also asked the government Wednesday to respond by the end of today to Sullivan’s request to hold a pretrial “James Hearing” to determine the admissibility of an out-of-court statement made by a co-conspirator.

On Monday, prosecutors and lawyers for the duo argued over a motion to exclude evidence and cross-examination about another corruption case, in which a member of Teamsters Local 25 pleaded guilty to attempted extortion in 2016 for trying to pressure producers of the TV show “Top Chef ” to hire union workers. Sorokin had given Brissette and Sullivan until the end of Wednesday to respond to the government’s motion.

The trial is scheduled to begin three months after a U.S. Appeals Court overturned Sorokin’s dismissal of the case in March, citing his misinterpretation of the Hobbs Act in his March dismissal of the case.