Montreal Canadiens hockey legend Guy Lafleur leaves the courtroom for the lunch break in his lawsuit against the Montreal police and Quebec's attorney-general on Monday, January 12, 2015, in Montreal.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Guy Lafleur has testified that a cabal of female police and prosecutors who were out to get him concocted an FBI investigation into his connection to an American gangster in order to bully him just before important testimony.
The Montreal Canadiens legend is suing those police and prosecutors for $2.15-million for arresting him on allegations he misled court during testimony in the fall of 2007 in a domestic-violence case against his son, Mark Lafleur.
Guy Lafleur told lawyers during interviews preparing for his civil suit that he thought he was the victim of a "women's power trip" among three female police officers and two prosecutors who were fed up with his steadfast defence of his son, Mark, who was facing allegations of abuse involving a 16-year-old girl.
Mr. Lafleur didn't back down Thursday. "Maybe I didn't choose the best words, but I don't regret it," Mr. Lafleur said. "There were all these women against me. I asked myself if I was the victim of a power trip by girls who wanted to make me pay."
The hockey icon testified Thursday that between two of his son's bail hearings in 2007 he was called to the Montreal police department to answer FBI questions about famed Boston gangster James (Whitey) Bulger, who had been on the lam for 12 years.
Mr. Bulger was the father-in-law of one of Mr. Lafleur's former teammates, Chris Nilan. Mr. Lafleur had met Mr. Bulger once in the 1980s. Two Montreal police officers, who said they were acting for the FBI, quizzed him for an hour about whether he was helping hide Mr. Bulger.
Mr. Lafleur testified he found it strange the FBI sent Montreal police officers to ask him about the FBI's second most-wanted man. He later found one of the officers was assigned to a sex-crime unit.
"The conclusion I reached was that it was bullying. They pulled me in four days before my son's hearing to tell me the FBI has an eye on me, that the FBI is threatening me, that they could ruin my family," Mr. Lafleur said.
When he and his lawyer asked for documentation, the officers refused, claiming confidentiality. The issue was never raised again and Mr. Bulger was found in California four years later.
Shortly after Mark Lafleur's 2007 bail hearings, Guy Lafleur was charged with giving contradictory testimony after he incorrectly testified his son had strictly followed his release conditions. The former Habs star was convicted, but eventually cleared by the Quebec Court of Appeal.
Les Perreaux