Kenny Bédard |
Kenny Bédard was born in 1965 and would rack up an extensive criminal record. He was convicted of assault in 1984 and served sixty days in prison in 1992 on a drug trafficking conviction. A few months later, he was sentenced to one year incarceration on another narcotics conviction. By the time 1997 came around, he had risen to the rank of striker in the Rockers Montreal Chapter, a Hells Angels puppet club. Police arrested Bédard as he sat behind the wheel of a friend's car on Beaubien street in Montreal on August 26, 1997. A loaded firearm was found tucked into his belt and a pair of binoculars sat on the seat next to him. |
When Aimé Simard, a Nomads associate, turned against his biker friends, he revealed to police that Bédard was among those involved in the brutal beating of Sylvain Brazeau, a pusher connected to the Rock Machine. Brazeau, 19, was beaten severely with baseball bats on March 30, 1997. Arrested with Bédard on November 6, 1997 were Stephen Falls, Daniel Saint-Pierre, Pierre Toupin, Jean-Pierre Dumont, Sylvain Liboiron, and Jean-Claude Saint-Pierre. Bruno Lefebvre was picked up later. On December 4, 1997, Bédard and Rocker Pierre Toupin attacked Rock Machine associates Sylvain Rousselle, Luc Lepage, and Roch Sauvé at Montreal's Palais de Justice. The three men had just pled guilty to drug trafficking charges when Bédard and Toupin assaulted them. True to the underworld code, no charges were filed against the two Rockers. Bédard, who had been serving a prison sentence during weekends for possession of a restricted weapon and threatening police, was arrested on April 2, 1998 for allegedly shouting "we will get you" to police officers as he exited Bordeaux jail, bearing his Rockers colors, on Sunday, March 29. When he was arrested at his Longueuil home for threatening police, officers found a loaded firearm on his night stand. Bédard was again arrested on February 15, 2001, while he provided security for an important meeting of Nomads members at the Holiday Inn hotel on Sherbrooke street. Arrested with him were Nomads Normand Robitaille, Gilles "Trooper" Mathieu, Richard "Dick" Mayrand, Michel Rose, and prospects Luc "Bordel" Bordeleau and Jean-Richard Lariviere. All eight men were carrying firearms and were in possession of photographs of eight probationary Bandidos. The bikers avoided possible gangsterism charges by pleading guilty to weapons charges. All received one year prison sentences. Less than two months later, on March 28, 2001, Bédard learned from his prison cell that he was being accused, as part of Opération: Printemps 2001, of gangsterism, narcotics trafficking and murder conspiracy charges. On November 18, 2002, Bédard and five other bikers, including Francis Boucher, the son of Maurice "Mom" Boucher, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit murder, gangsterism and drug trafficking. He was sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison, with the condition that he serve half of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole. |