Biker Trials, The (13 page)

This was something for Bertrand to consider but Boucher advised him that he shouldn't accept what had happened to him at all. Boucher told Bertrand that if he wanted to be respected he had to take care of it. At one point in the conversation, Boucher told Bertrand “Don't patch that,” meaning he shouldn't patch it up and forget about the beating he had received. By this point, the police knew about Boucher's home on a large real estate lot on Marie Victorin Street in Contrecouer, complete with a horse stable. His son Francis lived next door in a house mortgaged, according to a police affidavit filed during the Project Rush investigation, by the head of a Bank of Montreal branch who was under investigation for fraud at the time. The police were also
investigating whether the same bank manager had whipped up a phony mortgage for René Charlebois, a member of the Nomads chapter. Months before Operation Springtime 2001 was carried out, the bank manager was charged with fraud amounting to several million dollars between 1996 and 1999, all of it related to mortgaging houses through his Bank of Montreal branch. As soon as he got out of prison for his scuba diving expedition in 1993, Bordeleau moved into a Contrecoeur house near Boucher's.

“Mr. Boucher is the head, or the instigator of the present biker war in Quebec. He is the godfather of an affiliated group that is called the Rockers of Montreal,” Ouellette said during the bail hearing. Maranda decided to challenge Ouellette on this statement and asked him what he had personally witnessed about the Hells Angels or Maurice Boucher. He asked him what he knew about the biker war and what he knew of Boucher's implication in it. Maranda was an experienced and crafty lawyer. He likely knew he was about to open a floodgate, even if it might hurt his client's chances at bail. Ouellette revealed that Boucher was under investigation for several of the murders and bombings that had taken place in the war at that point. Ouellette said that, in particular, Boucher was suspected of having a contract out on Yvon (Mon Mon) Roy, a member of the Alliance.

When it came time for the defense to make its arguments, a used car dealer testified that Boucher worked for him, selling cars on a commission basis. The car dealer said he had known Boucher for two years. He said that Boucher worked mostly on the road and had made $70,000 in the past twelve months selling new and used cars. If it were true, it would have meant Boucher was a remarkable car salesman, considering he had spent five months of that year in prison. Boucher ended up making bail. As part of the conditions of his bail, he was forbidden to associate with anyone related to the Hells Angels. But other people appeared on the list who were not members of the gang, including Vito Rizzuto, the
reputed head of the Mafia in Montreal. Also on the list was Gaetan Rivet, a former Sûreté du Québec officer who left the provincial police force and was on a very public campaign to try to discredit it during the 1990s. He would later be convicted of loan-sharking. Robert Savard, one of Montreal's more notorious loan sharks, was also on the list of people Boucher could not associate with.

By now, however, Boucher was already being more careful about who he was seen with. Kane told the
RCMP
that Boucher had selected André Chouinard, a member of the Rockers, as his right-hand man and drug courier. Kane said Chouinard was chosen because he was clean-cut and didn't yet have a criminal record. On January 31, 1996, Boucher pleaded guilty to the charge of counseling Bertrand to commit bodily harm and paid a $2000 fine.

Almost two weeks earlier his son Francis was arrested while carrying a .38-calibre Smith & Wesson revolver for which he did not have a permit. A few months later Mom's son would be acquitted on the weapons charge but plead guilty to lying to a police officer while he was in the Laurentians on September 9, 1995, and in doing so violating a probationary sentence he had received in 1994 for the break-in. He was fined a total of $250. Although he wouldn't become a member of the Rockers for another few years, sometime in early 1995, Boucher's son was, according to what Kane told the
RCMP
, granted a territory on which he could deal drugs for the gang. It was one of the first indications that Mom Boucher wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.

At some point in his life Francis Boucher had the word “warrior” tattooed onto his left pectoral, but to the other members of the Rockers he was known as Le Fils — French for “the son.” Like his dad, he claimed to sell cars on his tax returns, pretending to earn more than $80,000 a year legitimately. In reality, the dealership where Francis Boucher claimed to work listed its business address at 2101 Bennett, the Nomads chapter's hangout. The police checked with the provincial car registration bureau and
found that no cars were ever registered to the company. Mom Boucher had also set himself up in various registered companies while he operated as a Hells Angel. One was Les Produits Recycle Action which listed him as an administrator. It was the same company Denis Houle claimed to work for when he was before the parole board in 1994. During the years that Boucher was involved with the biker war he declared making a salary off commissions of no more than $53,000 annually. He was married to Diane Leblanc, Francis's mother, and lived with her on his farm in Contrecoeur. Meanwhile, the police noticed that he frequently visited his girlfriend Louise Mongeau at a house in Boucherville, a suburb of Montreal. In 1995, Mongeau was charged with possession of enough hashish to be considered a dealer.

By 1996, Boucher was apparently tiring of the war, and, according to informants who testified in court later, was plotting to kill as many members of the Rock Machine as possible in one fell swoop. Boucher now realized the police were constantly monitoring him. To counter this he took to holding meetings with gang members at the Montreal courthouse. Doing so would give the appearance his underlings or fellow Hells Angels weren't violating any court orders by associating with known criminals. Kane said the Hells Angels' leader was also doing business by coded faxes only and keeping a small circle of insiders who knew the intimate details of his drug trafficking. Boucher also kept up his early morning rituals, holding meetings before 9:30 a.m. at a brasserie in Montreal's east end.

By January 1996, the Hells Angels' plans for expansion across Canada appeared to be in full gear. Kane told the
RCMP
that Steinert and his drug-dealing partner Donald Magnussen had just shipped off a large quantity of drugs to Thunder Bay. The shipment contained 69 pounds of marijuana, 200 ecstasy pills
and a few pounds of hashish. According to Kane, the delivery man was an employee from a stripper agency Steinert ran. But Kane added that Steinert was no longer the carefree Hells Angel he had been before 11-year-old Daniel Desrochers was killed. He was becoming increasingly worried about being deported back to the U.S. He talked of moving to Brazil or even Mexico where, according to Kane, Boucher had told him he could become a millionaire within a year working for the Quebec Hells Angels. But Kane said other Hells Angels were losing their faith in Steinert and his sidekick Magnussen. David (Wolf) Carroll in particular believed Magnussen to be a police informant, and he disliked Steinert's reckless methods.

Kane was also having his share of problems. In February 1996, Rocker Daniel Lanthier confronted Kane with a statement he had once given to the police in writing. The statement had nothing to do with Kane's work as an informant but it caused enough alarm that he was ordered to hand over his patches as a striker in the Rockers. Lanthier informed him the Hells Angels could not tolerate someone who talked to the cops, especially someone who put things in writing. But Kane was allowed to stick with the gang, and within two weeks learned that Boucher had his hands on a confidential police intelligence report. It was over a year old and had been shelved by the investigators who were using it. But Kane said Boucher called a meeting during which he highlighted the fact that Robert Johnson, a man with ties to the Rockers, was considered a suspect in a murder where there had been no witnesses, except the killer and the victim.

Despite the fact some Hells Angels did not trust Magnussen and Steinert, the latter received his full-patch as a member of the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter in March 1996. Kane told the
RCMP
that Steinert had also received a “Filthy Few” patch, a symbol believed to be awarded only to members who have killed for the benefit of the gang. He was also given a gold memento worn
by a Hells Angel who had died months earlier of a heart attack.

While Steinert was apparently in the good books of the Montreal chapter, Donald Magnussen was still the subject of speculation that he was an undercover cop. Within weeks of Kane telling police this, Magnussen became the focus of speculation by other members of the Hells Angels that he had been behind the murder of David Boyko, a member of a Winnipeg-based gang called Los Bravos. Boyko had been shot to death while in Halifax to attend a Hells Angels' party there. The Los Bravos were part of the Hells Angels' plans for expansion, but now the gang believed Magnussen's temper had blown it. Members of the Winnipeg gang simply stopped talking to the Quebec Hells Angels. Kane told the police that the Hells Angels were ready to kill Magnussen and alleged that David (Wolf) Carroll was willing to do it himself.

In October 1996, Kane told the
RCMP
that Steinert had grown impatient with the Nomads chapter's criticisms that the Montreal chapter, the one Boucher had split off from, was doing nothing about winning the war. Steinert decided to form a splinter cell within the Montreal chapter that would become more involved. According to Kane, it was to include Michel Lajoie Smith and Normand Labelle, both members of the Hells Angels, as well as Magnussen and Marc Sigman. Kane said he was offered a chance to join the group but balked at their demand for $100,000 up front. Membership was costly because Steinert was preparing to buy the infamous Lavigueur mansion, a 17-room house on Laval's toney island Ile aux Pruches. It was previously owned by a family of ill-fated lottery winners who had become somewhat famous in Quebec. In order to purchase the mansion and make it look like it was owned by a numbered company, Kane said Steinert and Magnussen had paid a visit to an accountant the Hells Angels used often.

At around the same time, André (Toots) Tousignant,
Boucher's former chauffeur and a close associate, was assigned to kill Magnussen and had begun monitoring his movements. Kane was later offered $10,000 himself to get rid of Magnussen because Tousignant was having trouble doing the job. As the headaches continued for the Hells Angels in November 1996, Kane said Boucher determined that it would have to be a full-patch Hells Angel to kill Magnussen. Boucher felt Steinert and Richard (Dick) Mayrand, an influential member of the Montreal chapter, would never accept seeing an underling kill someone so close to the Montreal chapter. Kane alleged that Stadnick was selected as a possible candidate to carry out the murder because he had the most to gain from it with his plans for westward expansion.

To make matters worse, as the Nomads chapter was planning to kill Magnussen, they were approached by the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter to see if it was okay for Magnussen to become a “hangaround,” the first step in becoming a member of their gang. Kane said the Nomads members told their Montreal brothers they had no problem with it. But immediately after the meeting, the Nomads members held their own meeting and discussed how it definitely must be a full-patch member who would eliminate Magnussen.

By February 1997, Kane said there were rumors that Magnussen had beaten up a relative of Vito Rizzuto, the alleged godfather of the Montreal Mafia, in a bar on St-Laurent Blvd., and that now, even the Mob was looking for Magnussen. Kane said that Magnussen would not leave home alone.

Steinert was also in serious trouble. He had received a deportation order in November 1996 and was trying to appeal the decision. Sometime later in 1997, both Steinert and Magnussen disappeared. Their bodies would turn up floating in the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City. They had been severely beaten before they were killed.

The year 1997 was a busy one in the biker war. Twenty-eight
murders in Quebec were attributed to the biker war that year, more than during the three years previous. There were another 30 attempted murders in 1997 that the police also suspected were tied to the conflict. But what drew the most public attention was the murders of two prison guards, killed on Boucher's orders in an effort to destabilize the justice system. Stéphane (Godasse) Gagné, whom Boucher had met during his 1995 detention in Sorel, turned informant against him and provided evidence that would help convict Boucher for the murders.

Gagné was the key witness during the first trial and, as Justice Jean Guy Boilard gave his final instructions to the jury, he said that the case essentially boiled down to Gagné's testimony. If the jury believed a former killer turned informant, then they should weigh the evidence that supported what he said. If they didn't believe him, they should all go home. The jury chose not to believe Gagné. After three days of deliberation, they acquitted Boucher on November 27, 1998. He mouthed a “Merci” toward the jury and walked out of the courthouse a free man, surrounded by several members of the Rockers. Normand Robitaille, who had been made a member of the Nomads just weeks before, threw his arm around Boucher and they both smiled as they walked away.

That night, Boucher took in a Friday night boxing card in Verdun and some people in the audience cheered as he was greeted by his fellow Hells Angels — Boucher had become a public figure in Montreal. His wire-rimmed glasses and broad smile made him easily recognizable, especially with all of the media coverage of his trial. Police investigators who monitored the Hells Angels after the trial were stunned to see he had gained a kind of folk-hero status in the Hochelaga Maisonneuve district. People on the street would cheer him on as he drove along Hochelaga Street, the location of the gym where he worked out on a regular basis, or Bennett Street, where the Nomads had a building.