JUDGE ABANDONS HELLS TRIAL

A judge's astonishing withdrawal yesterday from a Hells Angels megatrial
threatens to the derail the costliest legal case in Quebec history.

By abandoning the trial halfway through, Justice Jean-Guy Boilard could
bring the case to a complete halt.

Boilard's boss, Chief Justice Lyse Lemieux, announced that a replacement
would be named by Monday. But that doesn't mean the case could resume then.
The replacement would have two choices - either continue the trial with the
same jury or abort it and start anew, Lemieux said.

Even if the trial continues, the new judge would need months to review the
50 days of testimony already heard in Quebec Superior Court.

Boilard's decision to step down came after a Canadian Judicial Council
reprimand for his vitriolic attacks on lawyers was leaked to a Radio-Canada
reporter. Such letters usually stay secret.

Boilard, 65, is a colourful judge who has no qualms about using his
encyclopedic vocabulary to intervene scathingly at the first hint of lawyer
incompetence or delaying tactics.

He made his announcement as soon as court reconvened after the weekend. The
reprimand left a cloud of doubt over his fitness to sit on the bench, so he
had to withdraw, he said.

"What should I do when the people who exercise disciplinary authority over
the professional order to which I belong declare publicly, during a trial,
that I am without doubt unfit to exercise my functions and that my
behaviour discredits the profession?"

Prosecutors, defence lawyers, jurors and the 17 bikers listened with shock
and dismay.

Lead prosecutor Madeleine Giauque was close to tears on leaving the
courtroom. She has spent more than a year on this one case. "We were as
surprised as everyone else," she said.

Defence lawyers refused to say what this means for their clients, who are
charged with gangsterism, drug trafficking and conspiracy to kill members
of rival drug gangs.

"In 15 years of practice, I have never seen this," said lawyer Louis
Pasquin. "It touches me profoundly. I respected this judge a lot, and I
still respect him."

Lawyer Francois Bordeleau would not say whether the surprise withdrawal
merits a stay of proceedings and a completely new trial.

"Our clients are very worried because of the delay," lawyer Lise Rochefort
said.

The trial was in its fourth month and running a bit ahead of schedule. The
jury was heartened last week to learn testimony would finish in
mid-September instead of around Christmas.

The megatrial has been on uncertain legs ever since more than 100 bikers
and their drug associates were arrested in spring 2001.

The sheer volume of the evidence overwhelmed defence lawyers, and few
wanted to sacrifice the rest of their legal practice to take the case on a
paltry $500 a day in legal-aid fees.

That $500 was just for court time; nothing was to be paid for months of
preparation.

To ensure defence lawyers would take the case, Boilard made a controversial
decision in February to triple the usual fees to $1,500 a day - up to
$9,000 a week - in a move at least one other judge said was illegal.

At another moment, after two prosecutors got food poisoning, Boilard
derided the courthouse's food machines and threatened to stall the trial
unless better facilities were coming.

The judicial council's letter came as a surprise to everyone. It said
Boilard made disgraceful remarks and personal attacks against a biker
lawyer named Gilles Dore at a bail hearing last summer.

Boilard said Dore's request was "completely ridiculous" and full of
"overblown rhetoric and hyperbole."

The justice also said "an insolent lawyer is rarely of use to his client."

Dore is a lawyer in a second Hells megatrial, one that groups 13 bikers
accused of 13 murders. It is to begin in the fall.

The council's disciplinary committee said Boilard was offensive, scornful,
impatient, lacked respect and was unnecessarily humiliating.

"The subcommittee is of the opinion that in abusing your judicial power
this way, you not only tarnished your own image but you undermined that of
the magistrature as a whole."

The letter says Boilard has a history of insulting lawyers before him.
Despite that, the council decided against a full hearing, saying it hoped
the letter would get Boilard to see reason.

Yesterday, Boilard said he was surprised to hear of the secret letter first
from a reporter. He said his post did not let him express his personal
feelings but the consequences of the letter being public meant he must step
down.

Boilard said he knew his decision to leave would cause lots of problems but
he felt he no longer had the moral authority to be a courtroom arbitrator.
The council's letter would give ammunition to all who want to question his
decisions, he added.

He told the jury to go home and return to court next Monday, when they will
hear whether they will continue or be dismissed.

Boilard's sister, an avid law buff who has been in the spectator seats
since the trial's start, was shocked.

"I'm shaking," she said. "I cannot believe it."

Dominique Parent of the Quebec Justice Department, which poured $16.5
million into building a special courthouse for two biker megatrials, said
authorities are aware of how much money is riding on such cases.

"We could not have predicted this," Parent said. "It was imponderable."

Frank Pappas, a defence lawyer not connected with the case, said it would
be impossible for a judge to take over the trial in midstream.

"The judge who starts the trial is supposed to finish it," Pappas said.

The new judge would need months to review the evidence, and he might not
agree with some of the original judge's decisions.

For instance, the first judge might have allowed some wiretap evidence
while the second would have thrown it out.

In such a complicated case, the only alternative is to start again with a
fresh jury, Pappas concluded.

That could add to the already huge bill taxpayers are footing. Quebec has
spent millions of dollars dealing with all the bikers arrested in the giant
sweep of spring 2001.

About $15 million will be spent on keeping the bikers in jail while
awaiting the end of their trials. Legal-aid fees alone could be close to $4
million.

And more than $80 million has been spent on special police squads and
prosecutors since the biker war began in 1994.

- - George Kalogerakis's E-mail address is georgek@thegazette.southam.ca.

The Hells trial at a glance

- -Jury selection began April 8.

- -Police amassed evidence that they stored on 177 compact discs - enough
information to fill one million pieces of paper.

- -A special $16.5-million courthouse was built next to Bordeaux Jail.

- -There have been more than 50 days of testimony.

- -About 115 witnesses have been heard so far.

- -More than 1,100 items - including a grenade-launcher, pistols, leather
biker vests, money hidden

in freezers and even wine bottles with biker labels - have been entered
into evidence.

- -Four informants from the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine have testified.
A fifth informant who committed suicide would have been paid close to $2
million for helping police - if he had lived.

- -Ten defence lawyers, four prosecutors and three police investigators have
been working full time in court.

- -An explosion was deliberately set off in a field and filmed so jurors
could see the force of a bomb supposedly planted by the Hells Angels to
kill enemies.

- -The jurors have also seen videotapes from hidden police cameras that
caught secret meetings of the Rockers motorcycle club as members discussed
business in hotel conference rooms.

- -Testimony highlights have included how the Hells planned to kill one of
their lawyers and that they were carrying out surveillance on Montreal's
Italian Mafia.

- -The gang was branching out from its traditional drug trade in cocaine and
hashish, selling Viagra and ecstasy, the jury has heard.