MP Dean Del Mastro, right, walks towards the media throng during lunch break for his trial in Peterborough, Ont., on July 9, 2014. Photo: Glenn Lowson/For Postmedia News PETERBOROUGH, Ont. — MP Dean Del Mastro faced a tough day in the witness box on Thursday after he spent Wednesday finally giving his version of events from the election of 2008.
Del Mastro, appearing in a Peterborough, Ont., courthouse on Elections Act charges, testified that he never sent or received a series of emails about campaign calls to Frank Hall, and contradicted Hall’s testimony about the $21,000 personal cheque.
Emails and invoices from Hall — who ran a now-defunct voter-contact firm, Holinshed Research Group, that did work for Del Mastro — are at the heart of the case against Del Mastro, now in its third week.
On Wednesday, Del Mastro testified that the emails are “ridiculous,” “absurd” and “preposterous.”
“This electronic discussion did not take place,” he said, emphatically. “I did not write them.”
The emails were taken from Hall’s laptop by RCMP computer forensic experts, who analyzed the electronic signatures. Del Mastro’s defence has suggested Hall altered them to get back at Del Mastro over a business dispute, and lied when he testified that Del Mastro asked him to backdate invoices so that they would appear to be outside the election campaign.
Jeffrey Ayotte, Del Mastro’s lawyer, read a series of emails in which Del Mastro and Hall discussed calls that Hall’s firm made during the campaign.
One by one, Del Mastro called them false.
He told Ayotte that he asked his assistant to get his copies of email exchanges from the House of Commons Information Technology department but that the records no longer exist.
The Speaker’s office declined Thursday to say how long the House archives such emails, citing security concerns.
Del Mastro, the MP for Peterborough, is charged with violating the Elections Act by exceeding the spending and donation limits in his 2008 election campaign and filing an incorrect return to cover it up.
Del Mastro emphatically denied the allegations on the stand.
“You heard Mr. Hall say that you asked him to backdate an invoice,” said Ayotte.
“That’s absurd,” said Del Mastro. “I would not do that.”
Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro, with his wife Kelly, arrive at the Peterborough courthouse on July 9, 2014. GLENN LOWSON/FOR POSTMEDIA NEWS
For the first time, Del Mastro gave an explanation for the $21,000 personal cheque at the heart of the case against him.
The Crown alleges that the cheque, which was dated August 2008, was actually written and cashed in October.
Del Mastro told the court that the cheque was a down payment on a riding mapping program he intended to buy from Holinshed.
Hall, who cashed the cheque on Oct 14, 2008, has testified it was for hundreds of hours of voter-identification calls his company carried out during the campaign.
Del Mastro said he wrote the cheque in August, not during the campaign.
Del Mastro’s bank records show that it comes from a series of numbered cheques that were written in October.
Del Mastro said that he was in the habit of taking some cheques from his wife’s purse and keeping them in his wallet.
“My practice was to go find a chequebook and tear some out of it,” he said. “It looks like I ripped the top four cheques off” from a new chequebook.
Banking records show that there wasn’t enough money in his account to cover the cheque until October, when he made a transfer.
Del Mastro said that he doesn’t have to worry about overdrafts because he has a line of credit linked to his bank account.
“You’re missing a very important detail,” he said.
“What is that?” asked Ayotte.
“That the Royal Bank does not bounce my cheque.”
Technical forensics expert RCMP Cpl. David Connors arrives at the courthouse for the MP Dean Del Mastro’s fraud trial in Peterborough, Ont., on July 9, 2014. GLENN LOWSON/FOR POSTMEDIA NEWS
Records show that Del Mastro’s campaign manager, Jeff McNutt, signed an invoice from Hall agreeing to hire the firm.
Del Mastro said McNutt was not authorized to make a deal like that, and he contacted Hall to cancel the work.
Crown prosecutor Tom Lemon began to cross-examine Del Mastro on Thursday afternoon, taking an aggressive tone when Del Mastro’s answers veered off track.
“We’ll be here a long, long time, if you don’t answer the exact question,” he said, and later snapped at an objection from Ayotte.
Lemon began by posing questions about Del Mastro’s explanation for the dates that he put on contracts, suggesting the MP’s answers were inconsistent.
“I think you’re confused is all,” said Del Mastro.
Lemon pushed him on his story about the cheque, suggesting that it didn’t make sense for him to give Hall the money in August, long before they signed a contract about the work Hall was to do, which is Del Mastro’s version of events.
“Does it sound like sound business practice?” Lemon asked.
“I’ve done this before,” said Del Mastro.
“I didn’t ask you that,” said Lemon.
Del Mastro eventually explained that he gave Hall the cheque “because there was a level of trust there.”
Del Mastro says the money was for a riding mapping program that Hall failed to deliver. Hall says it was for election calls and that Del Mastro didn’t pay him for the mapping program.
Del Mastro’s official agent, Richard McCarthy, is also charged alongside Del Mastro. The trial is ending its third week. It is expected to continue until next Wednesday, with several more defence witnesses after Del Mastro.
Both men face fines of up to $1,000 and up to a year in jail if convicted.
smaher@postmedia.com
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