Boston Calling Extortion Trial Canceled

The public corruption trial of two Boston City Hall officials accused of trying to extort Boston Calling festival organizers in 2014 into hiring union members was called off by a judge March 21, days before the trial was to begin. 

Kenneth Brissette, the city’s chief of tourism, and Timothy Sullivan, head of intergovernmental affairs, are accused of threatening to deny permits for Boston Calling if the festival wouldn’t hire union members. When canceling the trial, U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin didn’t dismiss extortion charges against the duo, though it is expected he will, according to the Boston Globe. The paper adds that if the charges are dismissed, prosecutors plan to seek permission from the U.S. solicitor to appeal. 

Prosecutors filed a motion March 21 disclosing an email sent by the business agent for Local 11 to union members that applauded Sullivan and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh for getting nine members jobs at the festival. Though the email was reportedly prosecutors’ clearest evidence that the union was grateful for the help from Brissette and Sullivan, the prosecutors wrote that it was “insufficient to meet the government’s burden of proof at trial.” 

The judge made it clear March 21 that when it comes to the Hobbs Act, the federal law that forbids extortion, “the government needed to prove the defendants benefited personally when they obtained the jobs for the union,” according to the Globe.

After prosecutors criticized Sorokin’s interpretation as too narrow and claimed such a view could set a dangerous precedent, the judge issued a response saying the Supreme Court had warned against taking too broad a view of the Hobbs Act.