‘An unspeakable mess’
Judge sentences ex-officer Roberge to eight years in prison
Benoit Roberge’s claim that a threat is what motivated his decision to sell sensitive information to a Hells Angel was called into question Friday as the former police investigator was sentenced to an eight-year prison term.
Roberge, 50, appeared calm as he sat in the prisoner’s dock at the Montreal court house and listened to Quebec Court Judge Robert Marchi read from an eight-page decision.
Marchi agreed with a joint recommendation on the sentence, made last month when Roberge pleaded guilty to breach of trust and participating in the activities of a criminal organization.
“The accused, by his actions, has destroyed his life, but even worse, even more sad, those of his family. He betrayed his family. He betrayed his friendships. He betrayed the confidence of his colleagues,” the judge said.
“He betrayed the judicial system. He will live for the rest of his days with the shame that should accompany such a mess — an unspeakable mess that only he is responsible for.”
Roberge was still a member of the Montreal police and among its top experts on biker gangs when he began selling information to René “Balloune” Charlebois, who was in a minimum-security prison serving a life sentence for murdering a police informant in 2000.
Roberge retired in August 2013, but had already lined up a second career handling investigations for Revenue Quebec. Charlebois had escaped prison on Sept. 14, 2013, and committed suicide 12 days later as the Sûreté du Québec closed in on the chalet, on an island near Sorel, where he was hiding. A man who helped Charlebois while he was a fugitive was arrested and he turned over evidence, including 10 recorded phone conversations, proving Roberge had been selling police secrets to the Hells Angel.
Roberge got about $125,000 for selling the information and the police have collected about $115,000 of the money. That includes nearly $95,000 that Roberge turned over to authorities before he pleaded guilty. An- other $10,000 was seized when Roberge believed he was purchasing the recordings from a blackmailer. The man was actually an undercover police officer and part of a sting operation that led to Roberge’s arrest on Oct. 5, 2013.
When he pleaded guilty in March, Roberge testified that he decided to work with Charlebois because a threat was made toward one of his relatives. Marchi addressed that claim in his decision on Friday. He said it was “at least stunning to hear a police officer like the accused, used to seeing and facing members of organized crime, notably outlaw motorcycle gangs,” say he agreed to sell information to a Hells Angel because of a threat over the phone.
Maxime Chevalier, one of two prosecutors on the case, said he also doubted Roberge was motivated by anything but money.
He said Roberge appeared to be negotiating for better deals with Charlebois on some of the recordings that were turned over by the man (whose name cannot be published due to a publication ban) who helped the Hells Angels while he was a fugitive.
“It is the only logical conclusion I can draw. Listen, I wasn’t there. There was Mr. Roberge and Mr. Charlebois and there were recordings. Was something done or not done? I don’t know. What is sure is that the conversations (Charlebois secretly recorded) are not in that (threatening) tone at all,” Chevalier said.
During the hearing last month when Roberge pleaded guilty, the prosecutor even went so far as to describe the conversations as “cor- dial.”
Roberge’s lawyer, Richard Perras, acknowledged that the judge seemed “skeptical” that Roberge received a threat.
“He never said he was a victim. It started with a threat and as dangerous as (the Hells Angels are), when these people threaten you, you take it seriously. The starting point was a threat. Then everything else followed as, let’s say, a consequence. I’m not saying that it was an excuse in having continued what he started. But the first step was taken under threats and he continued afterward,” Perras said.
“He has lost his self-respect. That’s something you don’t get cured of easily.”
Roberge sold information involving at least three major ongoing investigations, including two that were suspended because of the information he leaked. According to an estimate Chevalier provided to the court last month, the damage caused by Roberge could run between $400,000 and $1 million, in terms of resources wasted on investigations.
With time served factored into the sentence, Roberge is left with seven years and three months to serve when he enters federal prison.
Because he pleaded guilty to participating in the activities of a criminal organization, a gangsterism charge, he can only apply for parole after he serves half of the sentence. Normally, inmates serving a similar sentence would be eligible for full parole after having served one-third of the sentence.