Four Boston Teamsters charged with trying to extort jobs from “Top Chef” producers – allegedly going so far as to physically threaten host Padma Lakshmi – didn’t engage in any illegal shakedown , their lawyers insisted Tuesday, they were merely picketing for jobs.
The union members – Robert Cafarelli, John Fidler, Daniel Remond and Michael Ross – are accused of hurling threats, including homophobic and racial slurs, at crew members of the hit Bravo show as they filmed in June 2014 at a local restaurant in Milton.
Prosecutors claim Fidler stuck his arm into a van “Top Chef” host and judge Padma Lakshmi had arrived in, telling her, “I’ll smash your pretty little face” — leaving the star “paralyzed with fear.”
Lakshmi, who was terrified over the ordeal, is expected to testify at the trial playing out in Boston federal court.
“The defendants went to Milton to get jobs for their out-of-work brothers and sisters in the union,” Kevin Barron, who represents Ross, told jurors during opening statements, according to MassLive.com. “That’s what they’re there for. This is real work we’re talking about.”
The Teamsters Local 25 members were simply trying to legally pressure the production company to hire union workers for real work that needed to be done, Barron said.
“The union doesn’t have to take no for an answer,” the lawyer said. “Unions have a right, people have a right to organize and demand things from employers. There is no extortion, no crime, no conspiracy, just five middle-aged truck drivers doing a picket.”
Later in the day, a former co-executive producer for the cooking competition show testified about the group of union workers screaming at Lakshmi and others, Deadline reported.
“If you were a woman, they called you a c—t and they called everyone scabs,” Erica Ross told jurors.
One of the defendants called a female crew member, who was wearing a head scarf, a “towel head” in disturbing cell phone footage shown in court.
In the same clip, one of the union men shouts, “Are you scabbing today? What are they doing for you?”
Ross said she also witnessed one of the “Chef” contestants confront the union members, “escalating the situation.”
“I had never witnessed anything like that before,” Ross said. “I was concerned that our crew couldn’t keep their cool.”
A fifth defendant, Mark Harrington, previously pleaded guilty to attempted extortion and was sentenced to six months in prison.
With Post Wires