The City of Longueuil is suing the former judge responsible for its municipal court, whom it accuses of having stolen nearly $40,000 from taxpayers.
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Longueuil is demanding exactly $38,576 from retired magistrate Jean Herbert who allegedly overbilled for 160 sessions at the Municipal Court between 2016 and 2019, through “false declarations made knowingly and in bad faith”.
It was our Bureau of Investigation which lifted the veil on this story in 2019 by reporting that the judge had added time to certain sessions at the Court, which had earned him higher fees. We also reported that he acquitted in 42 seconds a friend who had received a traffic ticket, on his last day on the bench before his retirement.
“Stunned” by these revelations, the City of Longueuil then hired the firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton (RCGT) to examine all the fees collected by the judges of its Municipal Court, we can read in the motion initiating proceedings of the pursuit.
One session in five overcharged
The accounting firm had to limit its analyzes to a period of three years, from 2016 to 2019, since the hearing lists and previous files were no longer available.
Over this three-year period, Mr. Herbert, who had been a judge in Longueuil since 2002, allegedly overcharged for one session in five, according to what the City alleges in its lawsuit.
“Due to the frequency and extent of the overbilling, the defendant knew or should have known that he was artificially and unlawfully inflating the duration of the sessions he chaired and, consequently, the value of the sums he invoiced (…) In light of the facts presented, it is clear that the defendant lacked rigor and competence, and even integrity and probity,” indicates the request.
Resumption of procedures
This lawsuit was initially filed by the City in October 2021, then was temporarily suspended pending the report of the investigative committee of the Judicial Council, which was also to rule on Judge Herbert’s case.
It was the Minister of Justice at the time, Sonia LeBel, who in 2019 filed one of the three complaints received at the Judicial Council concerning the former judge, following our report.
In December 2022, the disciplinary committee of the Judicial Council issued a harsh decision against the former judge, saying that if he had not already retired, his dismissal would have been requested. “Taking voluntary and repeated actions in order to take advantage of the system of billing municipal judges per session is unforgivable,” the committee wrote in its decision before closing the file, for lack of possible follow-up.
In recent weeks, the City of Longueuil has decided to resume its legal proceedings. “The next step for the City is to submit, in the coming weeks, a request to have the suspension of the case lifted with a view to putting it in state and obtaining a hearing date,” the City told us via e-mail.
On the police side, the Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit, which searched the Longueuil Municipal Court in June 2019, did not want to comment on the progress of its investigation.
Reached by telephone, Jean Herbert indicated that he did not have time to speak to us, before hanging up.
– With the collaboration of Ian Gemme