MONTREAL - On TV, he was the mouthy mobster who sweet-talked his way into the heart of the don's daughter.
Now, in a real-life courtroom, he's the soft-spoken defendant calmly denying any links to criminal activity.
The allegation is that Tony Conte, an actor best known to Quebecers as the lothario of the underworld Vincenzo Spadollini in the television series "Omerta", has been up to no good even when the TV cameras aren't around.
He is accused of participating in a large cocaine-trafficking plot with Mexicans, in an alleged life-imitating-art case that could very well have played out as a scene in some televised drama.
The jury trial has been playing out instead in a Montreal courtroom where the 47-year-old actor took to the stand over three days last week to give his version of events.
"I had no idea what was going on," Conte told the court.
"I was afraid."
The scene in the courtroom is a spectacular turn of events for an actor who became a minor Quebec celebrity in the 1990s, with a regular part on a popular television show.
In those days, he was being interviewed by major media who wrote profiles about his life.
He described himself at the time as the smart kid at school, growing up in a lower-working-class, francophone part of east-end Montreal. He described himself as the class clown — the kid who revelled in laughter and in making the other kids laugh.
He said the teachers never really punished him because he always got good marks. And, besides, he made the teachers laugh, too.
Conte later attended the Quebec Conservatory and realized he had a passion for acting, for getting into the skin of a character.
He grew up speaking Italian, as well as fluent French. Now, many years later, it's his level of proficiency in English that's in dispute, and at the heart of the criminal case against him.
His case is not the first of its kind. Just last week, an actor from the "Sopranos" show and "GoodFellas" movie, Anthony Borgese, was sentenced to six months house arrest after pleading guilty in a New York court to orchestrating a Mob beating that broke a debtor's nose and ribs.
Conte denies the charges against him.
He is accused of drug trafficking, conspiracy to traffic and possession of cocaine, stemming from an October 2008 arrest during a police sting operation involving two alleged Mexican accomplices, two other Quebecers and undercover police officers acting as cocaine suppliers.
The Crown alleges that Conte was caught in the elaborate drug sting — in a deal for 30 kilograms of cocaine for $500,000, with an option for 70 kilograms more if the initial deal went well.
It didn't go well at all.
Conte was arrested with four other men that night.
On the witness stand last week, a confident and composed Conte denied having any part in the scheme.
He said he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and unwittingly found himself in the midst of a drug deal that quickly seemed to be going sour.
Conte in fact says he was just at the hotel to see a friend of a friend, a second-hand acquaintance known only as "Compadre." The stranger was a friend of Conte's friend, Diego, who'd been deported from Canada on a visa issue and who'd asked Conte to show the Mexican visitor around Montreal.
Instead, the evening ended with Conte face down on the ground. He was placed under arrest by police officers who busted into a 16th-floor hotel suite in downtown Montreal.
Conte said he was a passive witness to the affair and compared himself to a frightened spectator.
He told the court he thought he was going to die.
"So you were at the heart of a dangerous situation and it was the police that got you out of it by arresting you?" said Crown prosecutor David Simon, in a final question to Conte.
"Yes," the accused replied, putting an end to his time on the stand.
The prosecution deposited as evidence a number of text messages sent to Conte's pay-as-you-go cell phone leading up his arrest.
"The deal is for 30," read one text message from an alleged accomplice to Conte. "I'm (at) the place, sorry we late," read another message from the alleged acquaintance.
Yet another message from a friend arrested with Conte said: "Bring me money."
But Conte says his understanding of English is minimal. He testified that he had no idea what the words, "deal," and, "late," meant.
In fact, Conte says he hadn't even read the text messages because he's a technological philistine.
"I don't open (text messages) because I don't know how," Conte testified last week.
The Crown, however, contends Conte was a major player in the deal. They say he wanted to buy cocaine, using the Mexicans as intermediaries, from undercover officers.
One undercover officer posing as a drug dealer has since testified that Conte was trying to buy 30 kilos of cocaine that night — but was short $300,000 to complete the transaction.
That money shortage, allegedly, caused things to go south.
Two officers testified that Conte seemed nervous as the deal started to unravel, since the $200,000 in the room paled in comparison to the $500,000 deal allegedly agreed to in a coffee shop earlier.
Conte admitted he was at the Tim Hortons earlier, and spent hours there with the Mexicans and the undercover officers. But he denied being involved in any of the discussions.
Police said they were initially tipped to the arrival in Quebec of a man described as a Mexican drug trafficker in October 2008.
An undercover officer testified he'd made contact with the man and an initial drug transaction had failed, before the Mexican said he'd found a new client — a man who'd been on television.
Later, in a meeting with undercover police, Conte allegedly explained that his acting jobs had dried up.
Conte was a familiar face on the small screen in 1990s, primarily for his role in the immensely popular series "Omerta" and on "Virginie," both on the French-language CBC.
The prosecution keyed in on the fact that the actor's publicly accessible online resume says he speaks Italian, French — and English, with an accent.
He was also grilled over his role in "The Delicate Art of Parking," an English-language film released in 2003 in which Conte delivered English lines.
Conte said he simply made up some lines on the spot during the filming, in Vancouver, because he was unable to recall and deliver the ones in the actual script.
He said he has long been "traumatized" by having to speak English and has turned down roles as a result.
Conte's spouse and his manager have both backed up his minimal English in separate testimony. They told the jury that he couldn't really get by in his third language.
They also said he was inept when it came to technology. The jury trial resumes in early January after a break for the holidays.
NEWS ARCHIVE
October 2008
Montrea: Tony Conte arrêté et accusé de trafic de cocaïne
Oh my god ! Je pensais que ça arrivait juste aux States des histoires de même !
Le comédien québécois Tony Conte (Omertà, Virginie, Restos Mikes, NITRO) aurait été piégé par des agents doubles hier, lors d’une transaction à l’Hôtel des Gouverneurs de la Place Dupuis de Montréal. Ils auraient tenté de vendre 5 kilos de cocaïne. Un montant de 250 000 dollars a été saisi.
Conte et 4 autres accusés ont comparu aujourd’hui à Montréal.
Ils resteront détenus jusqu’à lundi prochain, alors qu’ils retourneront en cour.
Ils resteront détenus jusqu’à lundi prochain, alors qu’ils retourneront en cour.
Hihi ! Tony Conte jouait un mafioso dans Omertà. Pas mal bien, à part ça. C’est d’ailleurs le troisième comédien associé à cette série qui a des ennuis avec la loi.
À suivre !
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