Fraud case against Frank Zampino to go ahead despite delays, judge rules

A Quebec Court judge has denied a request to throw out the fraud case againstFrank Zampino and fiveother men, who had argued their case took too long to go trial.

The former chair of Montreal's executive committee was arrested, along with several others, in the spring of 2012 on charges of fraud, conspiracy and breach of trust in connection with a land deal. The Frank Catania& Associates Construction company is also one of the accused.

Their trial only got underway 41 months laterin 2016.

Lawyers for Zampino and the other co-accused considered it an unreasonable delay, and requested to have the case thrown out of court.

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A recent Supreme Court decision, known as the Jordan ruling, imposeda deadline of 18 months for provincial court cases, and 30 months for Superior Court, in order to uphold the accused's Charter right to a trial without unreasonable delays.

The decision has raised concern across the country that backlogs in the courts could allowpeople accused of serious crimes to go free, and prompted the Quebec government to announce a four-year, $175.2-million plan to address delays in the province.

However, in this case, Quebec Court Judge Yvan Poulin ruled that the trial could still go ahead.

Case is 'very complex'

Poulin said that he did not feel 41 months to be an unreasonable delay, given the complexity of the trial and the amount of evidence to go through.

"In the eyes of the court, there is no doubt that the current case is very complex," his ruling read. "The proof is considerable, if not monstrous, and amounts to several hundred thousand pages."

He also added that any delays were never caused by the Crown.

"The proof shows that the prosecution took measures to try to make the case progress rapidly and insisted, several times, on fixing a date for the trial," Poulin's ruling said. "Meanwhile, certain requests promised or announced by the defence were long awaited."

Charges date back to 2007 landdeal

Zampino, along with developer Paolo Catania and the Frank Catania construction company, were charged with fraud, conspiracy and breach of trust in connection with Faubourg Contrecoeurland transaction in 2007 in the city's east end.

The other co-accused are Andr Fortin, PasqualeFedele, Martin D'Aoust and Pascal Patrice.

At the time of the land deal, Zampino was the right-hand man of former mayor Grald Tremblay.

The piece of land in question was sold for about $4 million, but it was valued to be worth many times more.

Zampino is alleged to have fixed the bidding process to favour the construction company.

All of the accused, who pleaded not guilty, will be back in court next monthwhen the trial is set to resume.

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