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A fifth man was also arrested, but charges against him were
dismissed after the court determined he was wrongly identified
in a photograph.
Prosecutors contend the men approached the production company
and demanded that it hire union members for the show, and when
the company refused, they threatened to picket filming at two
locations, prompting the owners of those locations to cancel
production.
Federal prosecutors did not identify the production company, but
the behavior and locations described in court papers matched
with complaints made by a company filming the show "Top Chef,"
the Boston Globe reported.
"A group of rogue Teamsters employed old-school thug tactics to
get no-work jobs from an out-of-town production company," said
Carmen Ortiz, U.S. attorney for Massachusetts. "The strong-arm
tactics the FBI has seen in this case are egregious and our
investigation is far from over."
The men, members of Teamsters Local 25, also threatened physical
harm to people working on the production, prosecutors said.
The four are Mark Harrington, 61, of Andover, Massachusetts;
John Fidler, 51, of Holbrook, Massachusetts; Daniel Redmond, 47,
of Medford, Massachusetts; and Robert Cafarelli, 45, of
Middleton, Massachusetts. All four pleaded not guilty.
Each faces one count of conspiracy to extort and one of
attempted extortion. If convicted, they could face sentences of
up to 20 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock ordered all charges dropped
for Richard Jeffrey, 55, of Woburn, Massachusetts, after
prosecutors determined that he had been misidentified and
wrongly arrested.
"This case points out the frailties of eyewitness identification
under the best of circumstances," said Jeffrey's attorney,
Edward Ryan. "It's unfortunate that he was identified in a press
release as someone who was involved in this matter only to be
vindicated hours later."
An official at Teamsters Local 25 declined to comment on the
charges.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Eric
Walsh)
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