Friend advises Chuck Turner: Keep your mouth shut

Friend advises Chuck Turner: Keep your mouth shut
By Peter Gelzinis  |   Friday, November 5, 2010  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Columnists

TURNER FALLS: City Councilor Chuck Turner was convicted last week, but has continued his attacks on the federal government even as his friends try to gain a lenient sentence for him.
Photo by Herald file

Chuck Turner still has friends in this city. And at least one sees a formidable problem as the convicted city councilor faces expulsion from his seat and a possible prison sentence.

Chuck Turner’s own mouth.

The Rev. Bruce Wall said he’s been talking with people about going to the U.S. attorney, Carmen Ortiz, with a plea for Chuck to be given community service instead of jail.

“Yes, we have some people who are ready and willing to vouch for him to the U.S. attorney,” Wall said yesterday. “Our worry is, the more Chuck talks, the more he hurts himself along with those who want to help him.

“I understand that Chuck is all about making his arguments against the government,” Wall added. “But he’s been convicted. It’s time for him to just be quiet and allow those of us who seek to help him be able to come to his aid.

“The truth is Chuck has a habit sometimes of pulling the rug out from under those who want to stand with him, pray with him and offer him a bit of grace and mercy. Look, there’s no question in my mind that the community needs his voice and his passion. He’s far more valuable to us, working with a church or community group, than being shipped off to jail. I don’t think I’m the only one praying for that to happen.

“But it can only happen,” Wall emphasizes, “if Chuck finds a way to keep his mouth shut.”

Theoretically, if Chuck stays out of jail, he could remain on the council.

In a month, a dozen of Chuck’s colleagues will take up the matter of expelling Roxbury’s unflappable district councilor from their confraternity.

But they don’t have to make a decision on Dec. 1. The recently drafted Rule 40A is just convoluted enough to give the City Council the option of waiting to see if U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock sends Chuck to jail on Jan. 25 — automatically costing him his seat — or doles out a Tom Finneran-like 18 months probation, coupled with a fine, which could allow him to hang on by a thread.

Mel King, who came within one Ray Flynn of becoming Boston’s first black mayor, at first said he didn’t think he’d go to City Hall to witness that sad piece of history. Then, he thought again.

“Well, now that you mention it,” the 82-year-old former state rep and M.I.T. professor said yesterday, “Yeah, I think I will go.”

With his friend not due to be sentenced until late January, Mel’s hope is that the City Council might refrain from taking any action until after they learn what Woodlock has in store for Chuck.

“I would hope there’s some balance in all of this,” Mel sighed. “I think punishment should be weighed against a history of caring for people, of paying their rent, fighting for decent places for them to love and acting more like his brothers’ and sisters’ keeper than a politician.”

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