OFF THE WIRE
PAUL CHERRY
montrealgazette.com
Officials won't say what he did; Ex-Hells Angel had opted out of witness protection and had his parole revoked.
Maurice (Mom) Boucher, reputed head of the Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels in Quebec, was convicted of murder partly as a result of testimony by drug dealer Serge Boutin.
Photograph by: JOHN MAHONEY GAZETTE FILE , The Gazette
A former prolific drug dealer who turned his back on the Hells Angels by becoming a prosecution witness was recently returned to a penitentiary after taking a risk that jeopardized his life, The Gazette has learned.
Serge Boutin, 45, a former member of a Hells Angels puppet gang called the Rockers, was given a new identity after testifying in two of the most high-profile trials in the past decade involving the biker gang's members.
As part of his deal to testify against people like Maurice (Mom) Boucher - the most powerful biker gang member in Quebec until he was convicted of murder in 2002 - Boutin saw a first-degree murder charge he was facing be reduced to manslaughter.
Boutin helped get Boucher convicted of murder and was a key witness in the only so-called megatrial to go all the way to a jury verdict in Operation Springtime 2001, the investigation that dismantled Boucher's vast and violent drug trafficking network. Boutin was a leader in the network's control over cocaine trafficking in Montreal's Gay Village. He later testified he made $5,000 a week managing a large group of street-level dealers.
Under his deal to testify, the public should have never heard from Boutin again because his identity was changed and he was placed in the witness-protection program. He was granted full parole in 2007 and, according to a just-released summary of a decision made by the Parole Board of Canada, voluntarily decided to withdraw from the witness-protection program in 2010 because he "felt the framework you were subjugated to restricted your rights."
Because Boutin received a life sentence when he pleaded guilty to manslaughter he is still required to report to a parole officer.
According to the summary, in recent months Boutin resented having to follow a series of conditions set by a parole officer with advice from Boutin's former handler in the witness-protection program. Boutin was unwilling to share information about a woman he started a relationship with and had ventured outside territorial limits he had agreed to with his parole officer.
But it was something else that Boutin did, late last year, that alarmed Correctional Service Canada and led to his arrest, on Dec. 6, 2011, for having violated his parole. Whatever risky move Boutin did is redacted from a copy of the summary obtained by The Gazette. The document mentions Boutin later explained there were "no bad intentions" behind his actions.
"After discussing it with your parole officer and your former controllers, you have come to recognize your error in judgment although you feel the (parole) suspension was a drastic measure," the author of the summary wrote.
The parole board was recently advised that after having spent the past three months behind bars, Boutin appears to have changed his attitude about the option of living as a free man who abides by a series of conditions. He agreed to be more transparent with his parole officer and to have more consideration for his personal safety. His case-management team recommended that Boutin be relocated for his own safety.
Serge Boutin, 45, a former member of a Hells Angels puppet gang called the Rockers, was given a new identity after testifying in two of the most high-profile trials in the past decade involving the biker gang's members.
As part of his deal to testify against people like Maurice (Mom) Boucher - the most powerful biker gang member in Quebec until he was convicted of murder in 2002 - Boutin saw a first-degree murder charge he was facing be reduced to manslaughter.
Boutin helped get Boucher convicted of murder and was a key witness in the only so-called megatrial to go all the way to a jury verdict in Operation Springtime 2001, the investigation that dismantled Boucher's vast and violent drug trafficking network. Boutin was a leader in the network's control over cocaine trafficking in Montreal's Gay Village. He later testified he made $5,000 a week managing a large group of street-level dealers.
Under his deal to testify, the public should have never heard from Boutin again because his identity was changed and he was placed in the witness-protection program. He was granted full parole in 2007 and, according to a just-released summary of a decision made by the Parole Board of Canada, voluntarily decided to withdraw from the witness-protection program in 2010 because he "felt the framework you were subjugated to restricted your rights."
Because Boutin received a life sentence when he pleaded guilty to manslaughter he is still required to report to a parole officer.
According to the summary, in recent months Boutin resented having to follow a series of conditions set by a parole officer with advice from Boutin's former handler in the witness-protection program. Boutin was unwilling to share information about a woman he started a relationship with and had ventured outside territorial limits he had agreed to with his parole officer.
But it was something else that Boutin did, late last year, that alarmed Correctional Service Canada and led to his arrest, on Dec. 6, 2011, for having violated his parole. Whatever risky move Boutin did is redacted from a copy of the summary obtained by The Gazette. The document mentions Boutin later explained there were "no bad intentions" behind his actions.
"After discussing it with your parole officer and your former controllers, you have come to recognize your error in judgment although you feel the (parole) suspension was a drastic measure," the author of the summary wrote.
The parole board was recently advised that after having spent the past three months behind bars, Boutin appears to have changed his attitude about the option of living as a free man who abides by a series of conditions. He agreed to be more transparent with his parole officer and to have more consideration for his personal safety. His case-management team recommended that Boutin be relocated for his own safety.
The two parole board members who presided over the hearing agreed to release Boutin with a warning he be more transparent with his parole officer in the future.
In February 2000, Boutin helped lure Claude De Serres - a man who was growing marijuana for Boutin while also working undercover for the police - to a chalet in the Laurentians where he was murdered by the Hells Angels. The biker gang discovered De Serres's secret after stealing a laptop computer from the hotel room of a member of the Ontario Provincial Police who was in Sherbrooke to monitor a Hells Angels anniversary party. De Serres wasn't referred to by name in the information the Hells Angels found on the computer but they somehow concluded he was in fact a double agent.
Boutin was initially charged with first-degree murder in De Serres's death, but the charge was reduced to manslaughter when he became a prosecution witness. He later testified he decided to become a witness because his former boss in the Hells Angels, Normand Robitaille, apparently assumed he was one. Boutin testified he figured the only way to survive at that point was to actually become a prosecution witness.
pcherry@ montrealgazette.com
In February 2000, Boutin helped lure Claude De Serres - a man who was growing marijuana for Boutin while also working undercover for the police - to a chalet in the Laurentians where he was murdered by the Hells Angels. The biker gang discovered De Serres's secret after stealing a laptop computer from the hotel room of a member of the Ontario Provincial Police who was in Sherbrooke to monitor a Hells Angels anniversary party. De Serres wasn't referred to by name in the information the Hells Angels found on the computer but they somehow concluded he was in fact a double agent.
Boutin was initially charged with first-degree murder in De Serres's death, but the charge was reduced to manslaughter when he became a prosecution witness. He later testified he decided to become a witness because his former boss in the Hells Angels, Normand Robitaille, apparently assumed he was one. Boutin testified he figured the only way to survive at that point was to actually become a prosecution witness.
pcherry@ montrealgazette.com