Former Oromocto chief's bribery trial hears calls discussing money

The trial of a former Welamukotuk (Oromocto First Nation) chief accused of bribing a key witness in her boyfriend’s trial on domestic violence charges heard phone calls between the pair discussing amounts to pay in hopes the witness wouldn’t testify against him. Shelley Marie Sabattis, 58, of Oromocto First Nation, is charged with obstruction of [...]

Article content The trial of a former Welamukotuk (Oromocto First Nation) chief accused of bribing a key witness in her boyfriend’s trial on domestic violence charges heard phone calls between the pair discussing amounts to pay in hopes the witness wouldn’t testify against him. Shelley Marie Sabattis, 58, of Oromocto First Nation, is charged with obstruction of justice by means of bribery and her trial in Fredericton began Thursday with the Crown’s witnesses called to the stand. Sabattis is accused of attempting to bribe Chanel Sabattis (no relation) to dissuade her from giving evidence against Winton Saulis, who was arrested on Dec. 18, 2021, at Chanel Sabattis’ home in Kingsclear First Nation, and was charged with break and enter, assault, confinement, and uttering threats.

RCMP Const. Sulin Ore Rodriguez testified by video that on Sept. 12, 2023, a couple of months before Saulis’s trial date, Chanel Sabattis approached her, saying she received Facebook messages from two people – – Lacey Logan and Jenna Casey – offering her bribes to drop the charge. On Nov. 27, a couple of days before Saulis’s trial date, Rodriguez said Chanel Sabattis told her that her mother, Catherine Sabattis, received two e-transfers – one for $2,500, and the other for $2,000.

Rodriguez said bank records showed the money was sent from Shelley Sabattis’ account. The court heard five recorded phone calls from Nov. 27-28, 2023, between Sabattis and Saulis, who at the time was in custody at the Southeast Regional Correctional Centre in Shediac. The jail’s phone calls are all recorded.

The court heard Saulis and Sabattis discussing sending the payment of $4,500 to a “Cathy Sabattis” to encourage Chanel Sabattis not to show up to the trial. “It’s not a f—— bribe,” said Sabattis in the call. “It’s nobody’s business what she decides to do, right?

That’s her choice,” Saulis could be heard saying on the call. “She won’t say nothing from here.” On cross-examination, defence counsel Spencer MacInnis asked Rodriguez if there were any messages between Chanel Sabattis and Shelley Sabattis, and she said there were none.

She also said that no money was sent directly to Chanel Sabattis. The trial is to continue Aug. 25. Saulis was ultimately found guilty of unlawfully entering a dwelling house, confinement, assault with a weapon, and uttering a threat in his own trial, as well as a bribery conviction, and was sentenced in March 2025 to seven years in prison.

Sabbatis is no longer chief of the First Nation, having lost her seat in last August’s election.