The crown wrapped up its examination in chief of its key witness in the trial of ex-mayor Michael Applebaum after a second day of testimony from Hugo Tremblay — Applebaum's ex-chief of staff who helped anti-corruption investigators secretly record conversations between him and Applebaum.
Hugo Tremblay agreed to wear a wire on two occasions in May 2013 and a phone call was wire tapped in June 2013, days before Applebaum's arrest.
Applebaum is facing charges of corruption, breach of trust, breath of trust in municipal affairs and conspiracy in connection with two real estate projects between 2002 and 2012 in the Côte-des-Neiges/NDG borough when Applebaum was mayor there.
Tremblay said the goal was to try to get from Applebaum an admission or link to the projects. Applebaum doesn't say much in the recordings, mostly utterances showing he's listening to what Tremblay is saying.
But during a conversation in Applebaum's basement, the voice of the former mayor sounded panicky and high-pitched at times when Tremblay talked about political financing, how they'll hand Tremblay's file over to police, about people connected to engineering firm Dessau, that there were wiretaps and that they know about the kickbacks for zoning changes.
Applebaum repeated several times, "That's completely ridiculous." He said that there's no project and no zoning changes. Applebaum repeated he didn't know ex-vps Rosaire Sauriol or Claude Asselin.
In trying to reassure Tremblay, Applebaum said, "In order to charge you, they got to see the money."
"They can come up with all kinds of lies, all kinds of bullshit, all kinds of things. In the end, they have to have the money."
In the first conversation in Tremblay's car when Tremblay spoke about affidavits being signed, Applebaum told him that "they're meeting all kinds of people."
"All the elected officials went to UPAC, stayed there for five, six hours, they were asked all sorts of questions, all sorts of things."
Applebaum told Tremblay that "maybe they'll ask you questions about fundraising, how things work , about tax stuff. There's nothing there."
Tremblay testified that during the second meeting, Applebaum patted him on the back, shoulders and upper arms when they greeted each other. Tremblay said Applebaum never had the habit of doing that and was concerned because "I knew about UPAC, I knew Applebaum was mistrustful, all of a sudden he's patting me down. It was strange, bizarre."
Applebaum hasn't looked once at Tremblay during his testimony, as he sat next to his lawyers writing down notes.