Crown says testimony ‘implicates Applebaum’
The case against former Montreal mayor Michael Applebaum rests almost entirely on the testimony and credibility of a few key witnesses, prosecutor Nathalie Kleber said in her final arguments Friday.
That, Kleber said, and an incongruous statement caught on a concealed microphone in which Applebaum advises his former aide not to worry that the police are closing in.
“In order to charge you, they’ve got to see the money,” Applebaum said in May 2013, one month before he was arrested.
“It’s a surprising reaction,” Kleber said Friday.
The witnesses have testified it was not their idea to pay a total of $60,000 in bribes between 2006 and 2011 to ensure their business projects would be accepted in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges– Notre-Dame-de- Grâce. It was Applebaum or his chief of staff who forced them to pay, they said, while Applebaum was borough mayor.
Although there were minor contradictions in the witness accounts, the global picture after seven days of testimony presents a damning and cohesive portrait of Applebaum’s guilt beyond any reasonable doubt, the Crown prosecutor said.
“The overall story is a coherent one that implicates Mr. Applebaum at every level,” Kleber said. “There is such a level of detail, of coherence of details, that, in my opinion, those details permit you to come to the conclusion that the testimony you heard is not only credible, but reliable.”
Kleber recalled that Applebaum’s former chief of staff Hugo Tremblay testified he was young and inexperienced when he came to work for Applebaum in 2006, but was quickly schooled in the ways of illegal political financing and collecting bribes. He introduced Tremblay to businessmen Robert Stein and Anthony Keeler, and told them: “When you’re talking to Hugo, you’re talking to me.”
Then Applebaum advised him, Tremblay testified, to ask for extra “political effort” from Stein and Keeler to make sure their real-estate project succeeded.
Stein and Keeler testified they paid $35,000 in cash instalments at Tremblay’s insistence. No one mentioned that the money was going to Applebaum, the businessmen testified, but they assumed it. Tremblay testified he and Applebaum shared the proceeds.
Tremblay, Keeler and Stein did testify that Applebaum asked them directly to buy $1,000 in tickets for a political fundraiser, and advised them to pay in cash, a claim the defence has not disputed.
Political pressure was used to extort $25,000 from Sogep executives in 2010 seeking to win a maintenance contract worth close to $1 million for an N.D.G. recreation centre, former Sogep executive Patrick Laporte testified. The idea was Tremblay’s, but Tremblay said Applebaum agreed with it and helped it to succeed by threatening to withdraw his support of the Sogep bid. Tremblay and Applebaum split the cash 50/50, Tremblay said.
Most of the prosecution’s case rests on the testimony of Tremblay, the only witness to give details directly implicating Applebaum in the bribery deals. The businessmen who testified said they only dealt with Tremblay when it came to discussions and delivery of extra cash.
Police had Tremblay wear a wire twice in meetings with Applebaum in 2013 while he was mayor of Montreal, and taped a phone conversation between the two men in June 2013, just weeks before Applebaum would be arrested and charged on 14 counts. Applebaum never implicates himself in the taped conversations and Kleber barely mentioned them Friday, other than to note Applebaum’s “In order to charge you, they’ve got to see the money” quote. Tremblay warned police Applebaum was notoriously careful not to discuss illicit activities in clear language, she noted.
Applebaum’s defence will begin its final arguments on Monday. Applebaum has maintained his innocence throughout, and opted for a trial before a judge.
Those details permit you to come to the conclusion that the testimony you heard is not only credible, but reliable.