[MSN] Did lawyer know antiques were stolen? Counsel must have known client swiped high-end items, Crown tells trial, but defence says

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Did lawyer know antiques were stolen?
Counsel must have known client swiped high-end items, Crown tells 
trial, but defence says witness a `liar, cheat'
Dec. 6, 2006. 01:00 AM
PETER SMALL
COURTS BUREAU


A well-known defence lawyer who accepted antiques from a skilled art 
thief either knew they were swiped from high-end Toronto shops or was 
wilfully blind to their origins, a Crown attorney says.

"This was not inexpensive property that he was receiving," Crown 
prosecutor Sandra Caponecchia argued at the trial of former 
prosecutor and respected criminal lawyer Michael Morse, 59. 

"This was not a bottle of wine," she said, in final arguments 
yesterday.

He ought to have questioned why a clever thief like Raymond Hobin, 
49, was being so generous in bestowing on him pricey items like an 
iron table or sandstone cornerstone, she said.

Morse's counsel Anthony Bryant countered that the lawyer was duped 
into believing the goods were gifts from a client determined to leave 
his criminal past behind him. 

Hobin was, in fact, acting as a police agent and taping many of their 
conversations in his habitual bids to blame his transgressions on 
others, Bryant told Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer in his 
final arguments.

Morse came to trial accused of being one of the masterminds of an 
antiques theft ring. On Oct. 25, 2004, he had been arrested as part 
of Project Antique, a police probe into the theft of valuable 
artworks and antiques from pricey Toronto stores.

He faced 15 counts, including conspiracy to break and enter some of 
the city's smarter antique shops. After Hobin testified, the Crown 
dropped nine charges and the judge threw one out.

Morse now faces just four counts of possession of goods he's alleged 
to have known were obtained by crime, including an iron table from 
Archaeology worth $2,500; a Samsung computer monitor; corkscrews and 
other wine implements from Vinifera Wine Services; and a sandstone 
cornerstone.


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`This was not inexpensive property that he (accused lawyer) was 
receiving'

Sandra Caponecchia, prosecutor

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He also faces one count of seeking to conceal or sell a tapestry 
stolen from Kantelberg Antiques.

Bryant argued Hobin lulled Morse by saying he designed the iron table 
himself.

And Hobin told Morse the computer monitor was his own and the 
corkscrews were leftovers from his storage locker, Bryant said. 

Hobin sold Morse the $800 sandstone carving for $250, and the lawyer 
trusted his expertise that it was a fair price, Bryant told the 
judge. 

The defence lawyer also argued that the Crown failed to prove Morse 
ever had the tapestry in his possession yet is still pressing ahead 
with tainted evidence from Hobin, to try to prove the lawyer was 
trying to get rid of it.

Bryant questioned how "The Crown could stand the stench" of testimony 
from "a liar, a cheat, a thief and an unreformed recidivist," who has 
no shame.

The prosecutor in rebuttal argued Morse was no thief's victim, as he 
has testified, but a willing participant "willing to go along with 
just about anything (Hobin suggested) ... if it was going to make him 
lots of money." 

Hobin had been Morse's client, so he had no excuse for not knowing 
that he was a "serial offender in high-end property theft," she 
added. 

Morse's co-accused, Wayne Hines, is charged with weapons offences and 
threatening to kill Hobin with a handgun. 

Charges were withdrawn against another co-accused, Joseph Gagne.

Nordheimer is to render judgment on Friday.



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