August 15, 2017
Four Massachusetts Teamsters were acquitted Tuesday of trying to strong-arm a "Top Chef" television production into hiring union labor at a picket that turned violent.
August 14, 2017
Jurors considering the fate of four Boston-area Teamsters accused of strong-arming a "Top Chef" TV crew into giving them unnecessary truck-driving work entered their 18th hour of deliberations Monday while suggesting a possible impasse and a lone holdout.
August 10, 2017
Four Teamsters accused of roughing up a "Top Chef" television crew to get unneeded truck driving work told a federal jury in closing arguments of their extortion trial Thursday that they're innocent because they were just trying to get real jobs.
August 09, 2017
A Massachusetts federal judge said Wednesday that he would focus a panel of jurors on whether a group of renegade Teamsters tried to force "Top Chef" producers into giving them additional jobs on their set.
August 08, 2017
The federal government closed its evidence Tuesday morning in its extortion trial against four Teamsters accused of strong-arming a "Top Chef" television crew into giving them unneeded truck-driving work, followed immediately by the Teamsters themselves.
August 07, 2017
"Top Chef" host Padma Lakshmi testified in Boston federal court Monday that she was "terrified" and "petrified" after a Teamster reached into her van and suggested he was going to assault her during a confrontation that prosecutors say was criminal extortion.
August 04, 2017
U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock, who is presiding over the trial of four Boston-area Teamsters accused of trying to strong-arm a "Top Chef" television crew into paying them for unneeded work, usually speaks so softly that spectators have to lurch forward on the courtroom benches to hear him.
August 03, 2017
A group of Teamsters terrified a "Top Chef" production crew at a rogue picket outside a Massachusetts restaurant, witnesses told a federal jury Thursday, describing a reality television shoot that quickly descended into the surreal.
August 01, 2017
Four renegade Teamsters tried to strong-arm a "Top Chef" television crew into hiring them for unneeded jobs with threats of physical beatings and economic damage, veering from union activism to criminal extortion, prosecutors told a Boston federal jury in opening statements at trial Tuesday.
July 31, 2017
The case against four Teamsters who are accused of roughing up a "Top Chef" television crew in an extortion plot began Monday with jury selection in Boston federal court.