Lawyers for two top aides to Boston mayor Marty Walsh indicted last year and charged with extortion have submitted new arguments in a pre-trial effort to have their cases dismissed.
Federal prosecutors claim that Timothy Sullivan and Kenneth Brissette pressured the organizers of the Boston Calling festival into hiring union labor.
But defense lawyers have asked the district judge overseeing the case to drop the charges because, among other things, the men are not accused of having obtained or even asked for anything of value for themselves. Prosecutors maintain that the alleged extortion was, effectively, a means of advancing the mens’ careers and standing in the city.
The response is part of an ongoing back-and-forth as defense lawyers attempt to derail the prosecutions case before it goes to trial.
In today’s filing, Sullivan and Brissette's lawyers argue that the prosecutors' claims don't meet basic definitions of criminal corruption -- or, especially, definitions of corruption that have come from recent supreme court decisions.
In their response to prosecutors today, lawyers for Brissette and Sullivan cited various recent cases that, they argue, have established precedent that curtails the definition of criminal extortion and other kinds of corruption -- among them, a 2013 Supreme Court decision, Sekhar v. United States, that, they argue, made clear that the "obtaining of property" is central to the anti-corruption Hobbs Act, under which Brissette and Sullivan are being prosecuted.
"In the absence of any allegation that Defendants themselves 'obtained' the wages and benefits at issue," lawyers for Sullivan and Brissettte wrote in a joint response, "the charging documents fail to allege a Hobbs Act violation."
The response also challenges characterizations by prosecutors that Brissette and Sullivan used threats and intimidation against the festival organizers, pointing out that the prosecution has not, so far at least, pointed to specific verbal threats made by either defendant.
Read the full filing here:
Brissette Sullivan Filing 3-10-17 by isaiah.thompson4452 on Scribd
