XPost: can.politics, alt.true-crime, alt.harley   
   From: gregcarrsober@gmail.com   
      
   Benoit Roberge spent years cultivating and working organized crime   
   sources before becoming a mole himself for the very people he   
   investigated — the Hells Angels —in the twilight of his law-enforcement   
   career.   
      
   On Friday, the ex-Montreal police officer was given an eight-year prison   
   term for selling sensitive intelligence to criminal bikers in what a   
   judge described as a betrayal of the justice system.   
      
   Quebec court Judge Robert Marchi agreed with a joint Crown-defence   
   recommendation that Roberge be sentenced to four years each for breach   
   of trust and gangsterism, with the two to be served consecutively.   
      
   Marchi said he considered the maximum sentence allowed by law — 10 years   
   — but decided the recommendation was reasonable.   
      
   The judge had harsh words for Roberge in handing down the sentence as   
   the accused sat impassively in the prisoner’s box.   
      
      
   Marchi said Roberge endangered lives and may have jeopardized ongoing   
   criminal cases. And the judge believes a lust for money was at the heart   
   of his premeditated betrayal.   
      
   “The accused, with his actions, ruined his own life, but, worse, and   
   more sadly, that of his family,” Marchi said. “He betrayed his family,   
   he betrayed his friends, he betrayed the trust of his colleagues.   
      
   “He betrayed the justice system.”   
      
   The biker with whom Roberge associated, Rene Charlebois, committed   
   suicide last year after escaping from a minimum-security jail.   
      
   The exact nature of the information Roberge provided has been kept   
   mostly under wraps because of its sensitive nature. What is known,   
   however, is that what he passed along allowed 15 people to avoid arrest   
   during a cocaine-importation investigation, including the presumed   
   ringleader.   
      
   Some of those arrested after the fact admitted they’d been tipped off to   
   a mass police sweep.   
      
   Marchi noted that Roberge’s wife, Nancy Potvin, was a prosecutor in that   
   file and one of his close friends was an investigator assigned to the case.   
      
   Until his arrest, Potvin worked on organized crime cases. She has been   
   on leave since Roberge’s arrest last fall but is not linked to her   
   husband’s illegal activities.   
      
      
   Roberge also informed the Hells of two existing operations against them   
   and offered Charlebois information on police techniques. As well, he   
   sold information on three informants who were being used or were to be   
   used in different cases.   
      
   “One can hardly imagine worse behaviour by a peace officer in whom the   
   state had placed its trust,” Marchi said.   
      
   The cost to taxpayers for Roberge’s actions, as estimated by the Crown,   
   could be as much as $1 million.   
      
   The former organized crime investigator knew what the biker gangs would   
   do with the information. Roberge was frequently called to testify by the   
   Crown as an expert on the Hells at their criminal trials.   
      
   With time already spent in detention, Roberge, 50, has seven years and   
   three months left.   
      
   He must serve half of his sentence before being eligible for parole.   
      
   The Crown said Roberge sold information to the Hells, ultimately   
   pocketing about $125,000 between October 2012 and March 2013. The money   
   has mostly been returned to authorities and Roberge met with   
   investigators in an attempt to mitigate the damage of his actions.   
      
   A tearful Roberge explained during his guilty plea last month that he’d   
   been threatened into co-operating with the gang and had made a mistake   
   by not reporting it to his superiors. He said the threat came in a   
   single phone call and that he had mere moments to make a decision.   
      
   But Marchi said in his ruling he didn’t put a lot of stock in Roberge’s   
   explanation, questioning how a seasoned organized crime investigator   
   could so easily turn as well as continue to sell information over   
   several months.   
      
   “He will live the rest of his life with the shame that accompanies such   
   a mess,” Marchi said. “An unspeakable mess for which he alone is   
   responsible.”   
      
   The case centred around recordings of conversations between Charlebois   
   and Roberge that surfaced after the biker’s suicide last Sept. 26. He’d   
   been on the lam for 12 days from a minimum-security prison and took his   
   own life as police moved in to capture him.   
      
   A third party, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, made   
   police aware of the tapes and gave them certain information about the   
   nine recordings.   
      
   Roberge was arrested in an elaborate sting operation by police as he   
   tried to retrieve the recordings.   
      
   Roberge officially retired from the Montreal police last August after a   
   28-year career that, until his crime, featured a good reputation and   
   clean record. He worked for the province’s tax agency but was fired   
   after his arrest.   
      
   Crown prosecutor Maxime Chevalier said he was satisfied with the   
   sentence, which he added sent a strong message to peace officers that   
   this type of behaviour will not be tolerated.   
      
   For his part, defence lawyer Richard Perras called the sentence severe   
   but fair.   
      
   “It’s a sad ending to a file, but a reasonable one,” Perras said.   
   http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/04/04/he-betrayed-the-justice-   
   ystem-lauded-montreal-cop-turned-hells-angels-mole-gets-eight-years-prison/   
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