Trial Normandeau : the ex-mayor of Gaspé is empty the heart

File Photo, Simon Clark
François Roussy

Jean-Luc Lavallée

Wednesday, January 24, 2018 12:38

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Wednesday, January 24, 2018 12:38

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Co-accused of Nathalie Normandeau, ex-mayor of Gaspé François Roussy in turn invokes the stop Jordan to abort the trial and reproach for the DPCP to have filed charges to look forward to in 2016, “without being ready” to proceed.

• READ ALSO: Trial of Nathalie Normandeau : the defense wants to force the shutdown procedures

On Tuesday, the lawyers of Marc-Yvan Côté and France Michaud had pleaded their cause in the framework of the request for a stay of proceedings for unreasonable delay. The six co-accused, arrested by UPAC in march 2016, joined in this query type Jordan.

Mr. Roussy, who is single, was sent to his tower to court Wednesday morning to lament the time that it attributes to the public ministry, including his change of “strategy” along the way.

Recall that a preliminary investigation of four-to-six weeks had been planned originally, before the holding of the trial. However, nine months after a date set for this step court allows the defence to test the evidence, the Crown filed an indictment direct to fall de facto to the holding of the preliminary inquiry.

It is a privilege that is used rarely by the Crown. To this day, the prosecutors have still not justified the maneuver and are not required to do so. “It is clear that it was the strategy. Why we did not wait to be ready before making the accusations?”, launched Mr. Roussy at its argument.

Recalling his father status single parent who must travel great distances each time, between Gaspe and Quebec city, his defence, the ex-mayor of Gaspé deplores the delay caused by this “coup de théâtre” and the “shock” that it has been cashed.

“All the work that had been done since the beginning was no longer anything and we went to zero in the file with new charges, and a theory of cause which was changed”, he lamented.

A case of “particular”

“My case is particular. For me the evidence is minimal compared to the whole record. I pretend that I am maintained artificially in this great trial we are talking about for several months by the head of the conspiracy which is not based on the evidence. Our contention, from the beginning, it was to knock off the chiefs as soon as the preliminary investigation”, he launched.

Associated with the Parti québécois because of her former job as press secretary to the mna Gaétan Lelièvre – who has been excluded by the result of the caucus of the parti québecois – Mr. Roussy had hoped to have a separate trial and to be tried by his peers in the Gaspé peninsula.

He has supported a part of his argument on the case of the ex-fundraiser for the PQ Ernest Murray, which escaped with a conditional discharge for an attempt of illegal financing that is ultimately never materialized. Mr. Murray had been arrested at the same time as him in the spring of 2016. “He pleaded guilty and in the end, it is finished with a small head and a conditional discharge. At first, he had more charges than me,” recalled Mr. Roussy.

A defence costly

The latter said to the judge André Perreault that he had “no criminal act” and said that he was satisfied to be recognized “not guilty” at the end of a trial. That said, he refuses to engage “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in his defense and to pay this sum by the Town of Gaspé, then, that the Crown has the means “infinite”. This is why it is now only today that the Town of Gaspé covered the cost of his defence at the start.

In addition to the head of the conspiracy which he vigorously disputed, Mr. Roussy is also facing charges of fraud, abuse of confidence and corruption.