A former bailiff finds himself in court. Marc Boulianne made the prosecutors of the Municipal Court of Montreal believe that witnesses had been officially informed of their summons to the court, while he remained idly by. He now faces prison.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
Little known to the public, judicial officers are an important part of the judicial system. They serve countless procedures, such as subpoenas, and enforce the binding decisions of judges. Judicial officers are thus governed by a professional order.
Last July, Marc Boulianne pleaded guilty at the Montreal courthouse to having “made a false document, i.e. a service report, knowing it to be false” in 2018. It is extremely rare for a bailiff to be accused of a crime committed in the course of his duties.
While he was a bailiff, Marc Boulianne produced six false reports of service to the Municipal Court of Montreal. According to the summary of facts presented to the court, the deputy chief prosecutor suspected that the bailiff was not doing his job. Three municipal prosecutors then checked with civilian witnesses and discovered that they had never received any documents from the bailiff.
“Fortunately, in neither of these cases are there any unfortunate consequences for the civilian witnesses,” said Crown Attorney Ms.e Sylvie Dulude, on July 11. Note that a subpoenaed person who fails to appear in court may be charged with contempt of court.
No ethical accusation
Initially, Marc Boulianne was also accused of prevarication of civil servants in the execution of judicial acts, an extremely rare charge. This count, however, was dropped by the prosecution when it was found guilty on the count of forgery.
The 31-year-old man has not been a member of the Chambre des huissiers de justice du Québec since March 2020. Surprisingly, no ethical charges have been brought against him by the trustee in this case. The Chamber of Judicial Officers was also unaware of all the problems of the former bailiff before the courts, confirmed to The Press a manager of the organization.
The case briefly returned to court on October 6 and was adjourned to next January pending the preparation of a pre-sentence report. The accused now resides in La Tuque.
His employer did not know
At the time of the crimes, Marc Boulianne was affiliated with the Hainault Gravel firm. The vice-chairman of the company’s board of directors, Sylvain Gravel, told The Press never having been made aware of the criminal charges brought against Marc Boulianne.
” I did not even know. He would have been kicked out of the company immediately. We would have reported to the trustee as well. The city [de Montréal] asked us not to give him work, so he decided to leave,” explained Sylvain Gravel.
Me Simon Chartier defends Marc Boulianne.