On Wednesday, prosecutors continued to present their case against Kenneth Brissette and Timothy Sullivan, both senior appointees of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and who stand accused of extorting the Boston Calling music festival into hiring union labor.
Brissette and Sullivan are charged with conspiracy to commit extortion and extortion for allegedly illegally pressuring Boston Calling into hiring members of IATSE Local 11, a local chapter of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, or stagehands union.
Witnesses included two individuals who had worked with the television show Top Chef in 2014, when the show filming in Boston — only to be picketed and allegedly harassed by angry members of the Teamsters union.
Those incidents culminated in federal extortion charges against five Teamsters, and the trial — and subsequent acquittal by a jury — of four of the members in 2017.
Neither Brissette nor Sullivan is accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the incidents around Top Chef’s filming in Boston.
But prosecutors sought to use testimony around those incidents to paint at least Brissette as having shown a pattern of inserting himself between private enterprises and Boston unions, on behalf of the latter.
Derek Cunningham, a film scout and fixer for Top Chef, testified that Brissette had called him after learning that union members were preparing to picket the show, asking Cunningham to hold off on obtaining permits for the show.
Another witness, a Top Chef executive producer, testified to Brissette’s attempts to intervene as tensions between show executives and Teamsters members escalated.
But the witnesses did not characterize Brissette or Sullivan as using threats or intimidation or as conspiring to exert pressure.
Cunningham testified that when he had half-jokingly suggested to Brissette that he just “delete” Top Chef's permits in 2014, Brissette seemed not to fully understand the permitting process.
“He said he had never gone through something like this before,” Cunningham testified.
And in one surprising bit of testimony, a witness for the prosecution offered a generally laudatory assessment of defendant Brissette’s character.
Chris Cooke, who held Brissette’s job in the Menino administration, testified that when he’d been approached by members of the Boston stagehands union asking for help getting jobs with Boston Calling, he did not act on the request.
“I did not understand that to be part of the job,” he testified.
But he did not describe Brissette as having acted improperly.
During cross-examination, Brissette Defense Attorney Sarah Silva asked Cooke to describe Brissette’s character.
“Do you have an opinion as to what type of person he is?”
“I do,” answered Cooke. “He’s a fantastic guy.”
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