Andover Teamster Sentenced for Attempting to Extort TV Crew in Milton

BOSTON, MA — A Teamster from Andover was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston for attempting to extort a reality television production company.

Mark Harrington, 62, was sentenced to two years of probation with six months of home confinement, and ordered to pay a fine of $10,000 and restitution of $24,023. In November 2016, Harrington pleaded guilty to one count of attempted extortion, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

In June 2014, a production company began searching for locations around Boston to film a reality television series, setting up a stage location in Woburn. The company, which hired their own staff to work, was approached by Harrington, the then-secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 25. When Harrington told the company to hire some of his union members, the producer said that all of the drivers had been hired and there was no work for Local 25 to perform, the U.S. Attorney's office said. Daniel Redmond, another defendant in the case, allegedly demanded to know where else the crew would be filming and threatened to shut the production down. Harrington later warned the company through phone calls that if they didn't use Local 25 members, they would picket the filming.

In June, a Boston city official told a hotel that Local 25 was planning on picketing the filming at the location. The hotel then told the production company they could no longer film because they didn't want to be associated with the protest. New locations were found outside of Boston, with the Boston official making similar calls to other locations.

Later that month, a Local 25 official told a producer that they were aware that the company was filming at a Milton restaurant and they would be there with 50 men. A police detail was hired by the producer. On June 10 at 9 a.m., Harrington, Redmond, Robert Cafarelli, and Michael Ross showed up at the restaurant. Some of the defendants entered the production area and began walking in lockstep toward the doors of the restaurant where they allegedly chest-bumped and stomach-bumped production crew members in an attempt to forcibly enter the restaurant, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. The defendants continued to use and threatened to use physical violence against the crew, yell profanities, preventing a food truck and other people from entering the set. Crew members also saw some of the Teamsters near their cars and later found their tires slashed.

The four men were indicted in October 2015.

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