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Kilrea grilled on emails, phone calls – Metro US

Kilrea grilled on emails, phone calls

Ottawa-West Nepean MP John Baird will take the witness stand when Mayor Larry O’Brien’s trial for influence peddling resumes Tuesday morning.

Baird’s testimony is expected to take around an hour before Terry Kilrea returns for what is possibly his last day of testimony.

Kilrea’s allegation that O’Brien offered to help get him an appointment to the National Parole Board in exchange for Kilrea dropping out of the 2006 mayoral campaign resulted in two criminal charges being laid against O’Brien.

Yesterday, O’Brien’s defence lawyer Michael Edelson grilled Kilrea on his emails, phone calls, and face-to-face conversations with O’Brien and Baird surrounding the July 12, 2006 meeting at 700 Sussex Dr. where O’Brien is alleged to have made the offer.

Edelson attempted to establish that it was Kilrea, and not O’Brien, who raised the possibility of a parole board appointment during that meeting.

According to Kilrea, O’Brien asked if something could be done for him in exchange for leaving the race. Kilrea answered that he would only be interested in the National Parole Board.

“In fact, Mr. Kilrea, by your version in court … you were the first one who raised a federal appointment,” said Edelson. Kilrea said he assumed O’Brien was talking about a federal position because O’Brien had mentioned earlier in the meeting that high-placed Conservatives were supporting him.

Searching through Kilrea’s phone bill during that period, Edelson also brought up a number of phone calls to O’Brien that were not mentioned earlier.

Kilrea said that O’Brien called him several hours after their meeting on July 12 to inform him that Kilrea’s name was “in the queue” for a parole board appointment, and that Kilrea should call Baird.

The phone records show three other calls between O’Brien and Kilrea, which Kilrea could not recall.

According to phone records, Kilrea also had multiple conversations with O’Brien the next day, but Kilrea could only remember one call, where he said O’Brien told him that contacting Baird about the appointment was a mistake.