Scarred by the judicial fiasco of Operation SharQc, the Hells Angels have already filed $ 85 million in lawsuits against the Quebec government and are preparing others to bring their claims to nearly $ 100 million.
The Journal has learned that several bikers are preparing a new lawsuit against the Attorney General of Quebec, which "will be launched in the coming weeks" at the courthouse in Montreal, according to documents filed in Superior Court last week.
It will be added to the legal claims that 21 Hells Angels have already filed in 2018 and whose amounts have recently been revised upwards to a total of $ 84,930,000.
This means that the Hells, who control the lucrative narcotics market in Quebec, will then have their eyes on a booty approaching $ 100 million in public money.
The plaintiffs - 19 of whom pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder and two to a charge of indictment - claim compensation for alleged "severe" abuse of authority and litigation in the SharQc targeted 156 accused in 2009.
Rights flouted
The bikers claim that their rights were flouted "deliberately" by prosecutors and police officers of the Sûreté du Québec, whom they accused of "knowingly" concealing evidence from them.
They add that the informer Sylvain Boulanger, whose collaboration was "the cornerstone" of the operation, was driven by "a thirst for revenge" against the Hells who had ousted him from the gang.
Most of the 21 plaintiffs are seeking an award of $ 8,000 to $ 10,000 for each day they believe they have "unfairly" spent in the Bordeaux Centennial Prison.
They allege that they lived in "unhealthy" conditions in the "presence of vermin" and suffered stress from "overcrowding".
The Hells Angels Daniel Beaulieu, who was released in 2015 from charges of conspiracy and murder against him, is the most greedy of the lot with a claim over $ 16 million.
However, the authorities told them in writing that they were going to defend themselves and that they did not intend to pay a cent to the bikers.
In addition, the Attorney General argues that prosecutors and police officers committed "no fault".
In addition, the defendants argue that the damages that the bikers complain of having suffered are "grossly exaggerated" and "illegally claimed".
In his defense, the informer Boulanger, who received $ 2.9 million from the SQ to return his jacket, claims that he "collaborated in good faith" to the investigation and that he "did not lie" .
On October 9, 2015, the mega-trials for the murders of five Hells Angels ended up in the head of the fish for the Crown when Judge James Brunton ordered a stay of proceedings.
As the trial began two months ago, the prosecution had just disclosed to the defense lawyers the evidence they had been asking for for four years.
"What song do you want? "
This information was not only likely to exculpate the accused of the murder of a relative of the Rock Machine, Sylvain Reed, but also to taint the credibility of the informer Boulanger.
The latter had told the police that before knocking out and strangling Reed on March 12, 1997 in Estrie, one of the bikers accused had asked the victim: "What song do you want to listen before you die? "
As a result of this mess, nearly 40 bikers who had already been convicted of conspiracy successfully invoked this abuse of process with the Quebec Court of Appeal and obtained significant reductions in their sentences. .
M e Jean Lortie, who was responsible for conducting an internal investigation into the failures of the judicial component of SharQc, concluded in 2016 that prosecutors of the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DCPP) had been "overwhelmed by the volume of information to be managed ".
If all the evidence gathered in Operation SharQc had been printed and stacked, it would have been of a height equivalent to 371 Empire State Building.
"It is undeniable that the defendant acted in bad faith with malicious intent [and that] the blatant, deliberate and deliberate abuse of rights [...] goes beyond negligence. "
"By failing to voluntarily transmit investigative material, the SQ police officers committed a very serious, inexcusable and reckless mistake. "
"The plaintiffs [...] would not have pleaded guilty if the prosecutor and the police had complied with their constitutional obligations. "
- Excerpts from Hells lawsuits
"The police and prosecutors of the DPCP [...] have committed no fault.They never tried to hide the evidence. "
"They acted in good faith [...] and with the sole objective of fulfilling their duties and functions in accordance with the laws in force. "
"The defendant Boulanger did not lie to the police and prosecutors, responding to the best of his knowledge. "
- Extracts from the defense of the Attorney General of Quebec
