Gang trial bribe shock in Canada

Press, 5 December 1986, Page 12

Gang trial bribe shock in Canada

NZPA-Reuter Montreal A murder trial of four Hell’s Angels motor-cycle gang members was stunned when a juror announced that someone claiming to represent the gang had given him a bribe of SUSIB,OOO. Justice Jean-Guy Bollard of Quebec Superior Court said a juror had given him the note telling of the bribe just after the jury began its fourteenth day of deliberations. “I have been bought - Hell’s Angels. Juror No. 8,” Justice Boilard said as he read the note to the hushed courtroom. Justice Boilard said the juror had been offered and had accepted the money from “someone who said he represented the Hell’s Angels.” The man was immediately dismissed from the jury and was questioned

separately by Justice Boilard and police, but has not been charged. Over objections from defence lawyers, the Judge said he would not declare a mistrial and asked the remaining 11 jurors to continue deliberations. The disclosure came two days after the jury had told Justice Boilard they could not agree on a verdict because of concerns about the credibility of two former Hell’s Angels who became informants. Robert Richard, Jacques Pelletier, Luc Michaud and Rejean Lessard each face five counts of first-degree murder. The prosecution alleges the four were involved in the March 24, 1985, slayings of five other Hell’s Angels members.