Whenever Boucher and his fellow Angels rode their Harley-Davidson motorcycles down the streets of the working class Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district in Montreal, peculiar people would come out to cheer Boucher prefer it was a royal procession. Bouchard got here from the identical Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district that Boucher additionally grew up in, and like him, he spoke his joual (Quebec French) with a strong working-class accent; nevertheless not like Boucher along with his violent alcoholic father, Bouchard’s father had served within the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II, afterwards turning into a policeman, and was credited by his son with instructing him the difference between right and flawed. Card’s 2008 novella Hamlet’s Father re-imagines the backstory of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. The 1998 Hilton-Ouellet boxing match marked the start of Boucher’s “people hero” status in Quebec. Those related to the justice system described Boucher’s “folk hero” standing as reflecting the ethical decay of Quebecois society. On 2 November 1998, Boucher’s trial started in Montreal with Boucher being defended by Jacques Larochelle and Crown Attorney Jacques Dagenais prosecuting.
Boucher was extremely unhappy when he learned that Gagné had turned Crown’s proof, believing the Crown would by no means minimize a deal with someone who had killed prison guards. Boucher did not attend the preliminary hearing as a result of the prison guards refused to take him to court docket. The assembly was not pleasant as Boucher asked Desjardins to forgive a $400,000 mortgage with 52% interest that a good friend of his had taken out with Desjardins and was struggling to repay, a request that Desjardins refused out of hand. If he refused to do this they’d still be bound to admit him, nevertheless it could be because the junior baron of the home, with a peerage relationship, for parliamentary purposes, from the day of his summons. For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. We’re not searching for to do anything or not do something, and we take day by day as it comes. As a man who detested outlaw bikers, Bouchard become Boucher’s arch enemy, and to annoy him, Boucher took to hanging round along with his fellow Angels sporting their “Death’s Head” patches on their jackets together with their legal professionals at the Au Bon Pain cafe, which was also Bouchard’s favourite cafe.
Boucher was carried out of the courtroom on the shoulders of his fellow Hells Angels whereas Commander Bouchard, who was present within the courtroom, looked very glum at the sight. To get info in regards to the murders, Commander André Bouchard ordered a series of raids on strip clubs, bars, and restaurants owned by the Hells Angels. Commander André Bouchard who headed the investigation that assembled the evidence that Boucher had ordered the murders of Lavigne and Rondeau, had been feeling heartbroken when he realized that Boucher had been acquitted of the two murders, and felt that attending the Hilton-Ouellet boxing match might get his mind off the ache of defeat. On the evening of 27 November 1998, to rejoice his acquittal, Boucher attended a boxing match with his fellow Nomads, with the audience cheering him as he took his seat and hundreds of people lining up to get his autograph. Frequently, Bouchard and his fellow policemen at one table within the Au Bon Pain would stare for hours at Boucher and his Angels at another desk, to see who would blink first within the stare-downs that occurred with much regularity from 1999 onward. Bouchard discovered within the agency some $2.5 million worth of cocaine together with images of the Angels having intercourse with the strippers and with one another (full patch Angels often sodomize potential and grasp-round Angels as a means of asserting dominance).
During the same raid, a Peruvian immigrant and drug supplier named Steve Boies who was discovered with the cocaine was arrested, and as Boies had assisted Gagné with cleaning up after the killings, he named him because the killer in change for a lesser sentence. Gagné was anticipating to grow to be rich and receive whole immunity in change for turning into a délateur (informer); as an alternative, Montreal chief Crown legal professional André Vincent offered him no money and a 25-year prison sentence with parole doable but conditional on good habits after that period of time. Bouchard, who joined the Montreal police in June 1970 on the age of 20, was a troublesome, foul-mouthed “old style” policeman, who most popular to beat up criminals in order to save the Crown the bills of trials and imprisonment, and who would only charge criminals in the event that they dedicated a major crime. The Crown attorney, Madame France Charbonneau, broadly considered to be the toughest prosecutor in Quebec, launched an attraction to try to undo double jeopardy in regards to Boucher’s 1998 trial, arguing the trial was marred by so many irregularities resembling Justice Boilard’s professional-defence bias that a brand new trial was required.