MONTREAL – Former Montreal mayor Michael Applebaum was arrested almost seven months ago last June.
Since then, his court case has moved at a snail’s pace.
The crown prosecutor’s office has used the time to compile a voluminous amount of police evidence.
On Wednesday, prosecutor Marie-Helene Giroux announced the office’s work is done.
“There was a third disclosure of the evidence that was given to the accused,” Giroux told reporters.
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Lawyers are expected to return to court next week in order to set a date for Applebaum’s preliminary inquiry.
The former mayor is facing 14 criminal charges.
Police claim he took cash payoffs from developers in exchange for zoning changes in Notre-Dame-de-Grace (NDG), where he once served as borough mayor.
One of the projects he was reportedly linked to involved the new NDG Sports Complex.
Two other men were arrested at the same time as Applebaum: municipal official Jean-Yves Bisson and former city councillor Saulie Zajdel.
Zajdel now appears to be distancing himself from the former mayor.
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He has demanded a separate trial as soon as possible.
“He doesn’t want to be associated in a very long megatrial with the other people,” Zajdel’s attorney Jeffrey Boro told Global News.
Boro added that the stress surrounding the case is affecting his client.
“Would you want to do business with him?” Boro said.
The judge in the case has ordered Applebaum, Zajdel, and Bisson to appear in court on February 6 for a pre-trial hearing.
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