A criminal who allegedly threatened strangers to ransack their homes and harm their loved ones to better extract money from them was unable to convince a judge to release him, even with an electronic bracelet.
Michelangelo Bonny would have gotten into the habit of presenting himself as a collector. His role? Arrange for people in debt to repay. To achieve his ends, the accused would have gone so far as to threaten to destroy the house of an individual or to kill the mother of another, we recently learned as part of his investigation into release , at the Laval courthouse.
“It’s time to pay,” the accused allegedly wrote to an unknown woman in October 2022. The latter also does not know why they were trying to extract money from her, it was summarized during the hearing.
Last February, he allegedly warned an individual that he would break windows in his house if he did not repay $55,000.
Then he put his threats into action. The following days, the alleged victim actually received a visit from an intruder, who smashed the front door of his residence with a hammer, before fleeing.
Betrayed by cameras?
Michel-Ange Bonny was allegedly betrayed by the surveillance cameras of a hardware store near his home, which filmed him buying… a hammer.
He was arrested and then charged earlier this year in connection with this latest event in Laval.
But he was able to convince a judge to release him, by promising to behave well.
But the man would not have hesitated to flout his conditions and would even have done it again by extorting another stranger this summer.
He allegedly warned a man that he had to pay him quickly if he did not want to have “a more rock and roll visit”, in addition to threatening to attack his family.
Bonny was arrested again this fall.
During a search of the accused’s home, the police found two cell phones linked to the telephone number used to make the threats. They also seized checks worth $225,000 as well as several luxury goods worth $65,000, including a Rolex watch adorned with diamonds.
The accused also drove a black Tesla Y, seen during the investigation on several occasions, it was explained at the hearing.
However, if the accused seemed to lead a rather hectic pace of life, he only declared “peccadilloes” on taxes in recent years, lamented judge Yanick Laramée, refusing to grant him a second chance and ordering rather his detention until the end of the proceedings.
Numerous breaks
She also noted his numerous breaches of conditions. The one who could not leave the territories of Laval and Montreal actually took the liberty of leaving the province altogether, to go to Toronto.
To justify himself, he told the judge that it was simply because he wanted to go to a Blue Jays game.
He proposed to be released with an electronic bracelet, at his own expense ($500/month), but the magistrate ruled that this would not prevent him from reoffending, since the crimes were committed using a telephone.
He also faces fraud charges. In particular, he allegedly usurped the identity of an individual to rent luxury accommodation in Laval. The defrauded individual apparently understood the problem when a bailiff demanded more than $5,000 from him for months of unpaid rent.
Bonny is due back in court next month in Laval. He also has an extortion file in Montreal.