This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. Alexandre Duplessis said at the time he had been the victim of an extortion attempt. Thirty-two-year-old Julie Cadieux and year-old Nathalie Paquin were charged last Friday with extortion, break and enter and conspiracy. Cadieux also faces a charge of drug possession, with intent to traffic. Duplessis was mayor for barely half a year.
He took over after longtime city boss Gilles Vaillancourt stepped down amid a corruption scandal last November after 23 years at the helm. This was after he had just told reporters he would not resign despite a controversy allegedly involving extortion and a prostitute. I received nothing sexual. There was an attempt to extort me. But political rivals had spent the day urging him to step down. Media had also begun scrutinizing the denial from Duplessis, a father of two, that he had ever solicited sex.
One TV network carried two on-air interviews with a woman claiming to own the escort agency involved. The woman said there were dozens of cellphone text messages from the client.
She said the man had requested an escort for his remote country cottage. The owner said she was dragged into the dispute, and spoke to the man by phone. The owner said she later spoke to provincial police and showed them the text messages, and said that only then did police inform her that the customer was the mayor of Laval.
She told TVA that the police confirmed his identity through the cellphone number, and through other means but did not elaborate. The network said there were text messages and showed some of them onscreen.
