July 17, 2020
A federal judge on Friday shot down a bid by a former Boston City Hall aide to recoup more than a half-million dollars in legal fees after his conviction on charges he extorted a music festival into hiring unneeded union labor was thrown out.
April 10, 2020
A former Boston City Hall aide asked a federal judge Friday to award him more than $500,000 in legal fees and expenses after his conviction for pressuring a music festival to hire union labor was thrown out and prosecutors were slammed by the judge for holding back evidence.
March 27, 2020
A pair of Boston City Hall aides asked a Massachusetts federal court on Friday to reject a bid by the government to overturn a finding of prosecutorial misconduct in a case in which the aides were acquitted of charges that they extorted a music festival to hire unneeded union labor.
March 13, 2020
The case against a pair of Boston City Hall aides charged with extorting a music festival to hire unneeded union labor came to an end Friday night when federal prosecutors said they would not appeal a judge's ruling that nixed the two convictions.
February 13, 2020
After setting aside extortion convictions for two former Boston officials, a federal judge on Wednesday sharply criticized prosecutors who failed to turn over "directly exculpatory" information until shortly before last year's trial concerning allegations the pair threatened to yank city permits from a music festival unless it hired union stagehands.
February 12, 2020
Two former aides to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh saw their Hobbs Act extortion convictions thrown out Wednesday, as a federal judge said the government failed to show a clear quid pro quo or "wrongful conduct" for the pair pressuring a music festival to hire union labor.
August 22, 2019
A pair of former Boston City Hall aides convicted of pressuring a music festival into hiring unneeded union labor asked a federal judge late Wednesday to either set aside the jury's guilty verdict or give them a new trial to correct the "manifest injustice" of their conviction.
August 08, 2019
The conviction of two Boston City Hall aides charged with pressuring a music festival into hiring union labor may leave public officials afraid to speak freely to their constituents and wondering if everyday conversations could be criminalized, without more clarity from the courts, experts told Law360.
August 07, 2019
A federal jury found two Boston City Hall aides guilty Wednesday on charges that they conspired to coerce the organizers of a local music festival into hiring union labor in 2014, returning a verdict after less than two days of deliberation in a closely watched, 12-day extortion trial.
August 06, 2019
Two Boston City Hall aides asked, not demanded, that the organizers of a music festival hire union labor in 2014, their attorneys argued during closing arguments in federal court Tuesday before deliberations began in a closely watched extortion trial.