Maurice-S. Hebert: from high-flying criminal defence lawyer to thug life

Hebert

   Maurice-S. Hebert walked around Montreal from the mid-1950s with the swagger only a top criminal lawyer of his wild times could possess.
    Newspapers regularly reported on his legal maneuvers to keep the scurrilous on city streets, as Hebert shared his time between hard-bitten miscreants and esteemed fellow members of the legal profession.
   When and why he himself joined his criminal clients in their illegal initiatives remains a mystery worthy of speculation.   
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    Maurice-S. Hebert was born in 1925 and by age 30 worked with high-flying defence lawyers as Raymond Daoust, who launched the Allo Police as a mouthpiece to promote his own glory.
     Hebert also sported black robe alongside future Supreme Court Chief Justice Antonio Lamer, who spent many years defending local tough guys before riding the legal elevator to the very top.
    Hebert's earlier tasks were of the light-and-fluffy variety as, it was noted in September 1957, he got Sports Daily editor Samuel Feldman cleared of aiding and abetting bookies, and Feldman continued his publishing from his modest offices of Peel Publishing at 1117 Cypress. 
   Hebert then kept getting home for dinner on time as he took on easy tasks such as representing Conservative candidate Hyman Brock in a vote-recounting effort.
   In 1960 Hebert worked with Daoust to lower a murder rap to a manslaughter charge.
   He defended a man whose cigarette machine was deemed illegal and in another case cleared Meyer Dunn and 97 clients by convincing a judge that being in Dunn's restaurant after 2 a.m. does not constitute an after-hours violation.
   Hebert, now 36, suddenly had an inkling to become premier of Quebec, so he tossed his hat into the ring to replace the suddenly-deceased Maurice Duplessis in 1961.
   However Hebert pulled out of the vote and Daniel Johnson Sr. then became premier.
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Samson

   Hebert's failed political initiative, one might speculate, might possibly have embittered him to the rule of law, as his trajectory appears to change thereafter.
   Hebert carried on in his law pursuits, defending Raymond Caza in 1961, in a murder trial as he was one of a gang accused of killing their leader Keith "Rocky"Pierson.
   Hebert then went to bat for a young Frank Peter "Dunie" Ryan in a $14,000 jewelry heist in 1964 as Ryan was charged with robbing Edgar Charbonneau's jewelry store at 1450 City Councilors. 
   The jeweler Charbonneau also happened to be a longstanding Union Nationale MNA, the same party that had spurned Hebert in his effort to become leader.
   It's hard to resist connecting the dots of Hebert's possible motivation to see a possible-rival taken down a notch.
   Ryan, who was a mere 25 years of age, was also a suspect in a $116,000 fur theft in Quebec City at the time.
   Ryan was born and raised in the McGill Ghetto and lived on Cote des Neiges near Queen Mary. A heist in Quebec City would have required considerable guidance, which may or may not have come from Hebert.

Leithman

   Fast forward to the early 1970s when Hebert and Sydney Leithman shared an office at 1255 Philips Square where police planted a series of recording device from 4 Feb to 20 Feb 1972.
   Leithman, who was later shot dead while driving his Saab to work, called a press conference to expose the illegal espionage on Nov 20, 1973, but Hebert did not attend and stayed mum.
   Hebert was, by then, the faithful servant of such criminal bigwigs as Paolo Violi, Willie Obront, and Vic Cotroni.
  Hebert was named as a player in Obront's money-laundering operation and in December 1972 was accused of fraud by a New York grand jury.
   He then represented rogue RCMP agent Robert Samson who was sentenced to seven years for placing a bomb in the home of Melvyn Dobrin, of the Steinberg's grocery chain on 26 July 1974. Samson lost an eye, hearing and damaged several fingers in the botched delivery.
  Samson and Hebert would unite in a caper that would put the final nail into Hebert's career, as we shall see.

Proulx

  Hebert's troubles included those of the administrative variety, as he was fined $1,200 in 1975 for failing to file his taxes in 1968, 1971 and 1972.
   Hebert's chauffeur Lucien Proulx was sentenced to three months for failing to testify at a crime commission in Oct. 1976 after allegedly trying to bribe police officer Sgt. Michel Lepine on behalf of aspiring prostitution kingpin  Ziggy  Wiseman.
   Hebert and Robert Samson then cooked up a scheme to cash four bogus cheques worth $135,000 at the National Bank at 3690 Wellington in the summer of 1975.
   With career hanging on by a thread, Hebert was arrested in May 1980 after Andree Marquis and an young man were nabbed leaving his apartment at La Cite with cocaine to deliver.
   Hebert escaped punishment on charges of cocaine trafficking after chemist Pierre Murray deemed that white powder found in Hebert's pocket was not cocaine.
   The Quebec Bar, citing Hebert's fraud conviction, officially revoked his right to practice law in February 1982.