The case of USA vs. Kenneth Brissette and Timothy Sullivan is in the hands of a federal jury.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors and attorneys for the defense delivered their closing arguments, capping off two weeks of testimony from more than a dozen witnesses. Brissette and Sullivan, both senior appointees of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, are charged with extortion and conspiracy to extort. The jury will resume deliberation on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors allege that in 2014, the men conspired to illegally pressure the Boston Calling music festival's executives into hiring union labor they neither needed nor wanted to staff their festival on City Hall Plaza — and were motivated by the desire to advance their careers by pleasing their pro-union boss, Walsh.
Prosecutors argued that the defendants exploited festival executives' fear of not getting crucial permits for their Fall 2014 concert series as leverage to coerce the festival into hiring members of Boston's Local 11 stagehands union.
Lawyers for the defendants argued, mostly through cross-examination, that there was no extortion — no threats, no criminal motivation and no pursuit of personal benefit — and that their clients had been doing their jobs in trying to broker a resolution to a simmering labor dispute between the festival and the union.
In closing, U.S. Attorney Laura Kaplan told jurors that the defendants' actions went beyond "vigorous advocacy" on behalf of constituents — in this case, members of a union that supported Walsh's candidacy for mayor — and indeed constituted extortion.
There was no requirement to use union labor on City Hall Plaza, Kaplan said, and "public officials can't just change the rules to help their friends — but that's exactly what [the defendants] did."
"It is extortion," Kaplan said.
Attorneys for the defendants argued, as they had throughout the trial, that their clients had asked, not demanded, that Boston Calling hire some union stagehands. They said this was not, as prosecutors allege, to benefit or advance themselves, but to try and prevent a nasty public picket on City Hall property that was being threatened by the Local 11 stagehands union.
The defense also argued that Boston Calling's executives viewed the defendants' request in terms of a larger negotiation between the festival and the city that they hoped would yield dividends for the fledgling festival. They argued that the delay in Boston Calling's permits was due to legitimate public safety concerns by the Boston Police Department and had nothing to do with the defendants, who had no power to issue, delay or revoke those permits.
"It's not wrong for a public servant to resolve a dispute among constituents," argued Brissette attorney Bill Kettlewell in closing. "That's what public servants are supposed to do: bring people to the table."
"While the prosecution is intent on making their case here, thank God they don't have the final say — you do," Kettlewell concluded. "You can end this nightmare."
