DiMasi guilty in Beacon Hill bid-pushing scandal

DiMasi guilty in Beacon Hill bid-pushing scandal

By Laurel J. Sweet  |   Wednesday, June 15, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage
Photo by Patrick Whittemore (File)

Fallen and disgraced former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi was found guilty today by a federal jury of conspiracy, mail and wire fraud and extortion in connection with a $17.5 million software deal he tried to shove through Beacon Hill.

In all, the former North End Democrat was found guilty of conspiracy, six of eight counts of honest services mail and wire fraud and one count of extortion.

He will be sentenced on Aug. 18 where he faces up to 25 years in jail.

The jury notified the court it had reached the verdicts shortly before 12:15 p.m. DiMasi glanced back at his wife with a reassuring smile moments before he learned his fate. Once the verdicts were read, the disgraced North End pol stared ahead blankly.

His co-defendant Richard McDonough, 66, was also found guilty of conspiracy and six of eight counts of honest services mail and wire fraud.

A third defendant, Richard Vitale, 66, was cleared of all charges. The judge was told he was free to go. All three men hugged after the verdicts were announced.

“You can’t imagine the emotions that are under the surface when you sit day in and day out with your freedom in peril,” said Vitale’s attorney Martin Weinberg.

Gov. Deval Patrick, who was called to testify in the case, said today: “I hope what it means is the end of a long sad chapter.”

DiMasi breached the public’s trust in his leadership when he exploited a software company’s aggressive pursuit of multimillion-dollar state contracts, a jury of his one-time constituents found today.

On their third day of deliberations at U.S. District Court in Boston, seven women and five men ruled DiMasi was out to line his own pockets.

DiMasi was Massachusetts’ first Italian-American Speaker from 2004 until his pre-indictment resignation in 2009.

DiMasi and McDonough, each potentially facing up to 25 years in federal prison, will be sentenced later by Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf.

Between April 2005 and March 2007, DiMasi was funneled $65,000 in bribes by his unwitting law associate of nearly 20 years, Steven Topazio, through a bogus contract McDonough and Joseph P. Lally Jr., a locally based vice president for a Canadian technology company called Cognos, struck for Topazio to be on call if the firm needed corporate papers reviewed.

Topazio, one of three government witnesses granted court-ordered immunity for their testimony against DiMasi, banked $125,000 never doing a day’s work for Cognos. DiMasi’s cut came from the $4,000 he demanded from Topazio’s monthly $5,000 paycheck and from a $25,000 lump sum he bullied Topazio into handing over.

Prior to becoming Speaker, DiMasi oversaw a $211,000 per-year law practice. But when his attention turned full-time to politics, the cases dried up as he amassed tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt prosecutors said he blew on clothes, fine dining and travel befitting his image as the state’s most powerful politician.

With DiMasi’s help on the Hill, Lally scored millions in commissions selling the state a $4.5 million software license for an education data warehouse for the Department of Education and a $13 million performance management system to permit legislators instant access to agency information.

In return, Lally paid McDonough a total of $300,000 for keeping DiMasi on board with the scheme.

Lally, 50, pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy and honest services fraud in exchange for escaping a money laundering charge and the recommendation of prosecutors that he serve no more than three years behind bars.

Lally, who is still awaiting a sentencing date, was vilified by the defense team as a self-serving liar and generate gambler for turning on the others with his star-witness testimony for the government.

DiMasi, whose annual $59,422 state pension is now in peril, is the Commonwealth’s third consecutive House Speaker to be convicted of criminal wrongdoing, but the first to be headed for the big house.

His predecessor, Thomas M. Finneran, now the host of WRKO’s (680 AM) morning-drive show, pleaded guilty in 2007 in federal court to obstruction of justice for his role in a racially charged redistricting plan. His agreement with the feds enabled him to skate on a perjury charge. Finneran received 18 months’ probation and a $25,000 fine.

Before Finneran, Speaker Charles F. Flaherty Jr. pleaded guilty in 1996 in federal court to tax evasion. Flaherty walked with two years’ probation and a $5,000 fine.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1345698

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Imprisoned, Turner refuses to remain silent

Imprisoned, Turner refuses to remain silent

By Andrew Ryan
Globe Staff / May 11, 2011

Chuck Turner was convicted of accepting a bribe. His colleagues threw him off the Boston City Council. And voters overwhelmingly elected Tito Jackson to replace him in the district that includes the heart of Roxbury.

But none of that has silenced Turner. From a federal prison in rural West Virginia, Turner has written several dispatches over the last six weeks he calls “Reflections from Behind the Wall.’’

The writings have been posted on his website, published in a weekly Internet magazine, and distributed via e-mail by his former chief of staff, who has since been hired by another member of the City Council.

The lengthy communiqués take direct aim at Jackson, in the first month of his tenure. Turner has promised a weekly posting on key issues that “demand the attention of Councilor Jackson.’’

FULL STORY HERE
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/05/11/imprisoned_former_boston_councilor_refuses_to_remain_silent/?p1=Local_Links

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Turner grooms successor, targets foes Heads to prison after e-mail flurry

Turner grooms successor, targets foes
Heads to prison after e-mail flurry

Chuck Turner headed to a speaking event yesterday at Northeastern University.
(Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff)
By Andrew Ryan
Globe Staff / March 25, 2011

Chuck Turner sent a trove of e-mails in the 36 days he served on the Boston City Council after his felony conviction: He groomed his successor, Tito Jackson; sparred with critics; and fanned resentment against councilors who voted to expel him.

He also reveled in constant affirmation from his followers, and he refused an offer to lobby prosecutors for leniency, saying that would amount to “collaborating with the enemy.’’

“From a consciousness-raising standpoint, the best thing would be for them to put me in jail,’’ Turner explained in an e-mail to his staff Nov. 8.

That day has come for the 70-year-old, who is required to report to the Bureau of Prisons today and begin serving a three-year term at a Hazelton federal penitentiary in Morgantown, W.Va.

FULL STORY HERE
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/03/25/ex_councilor_chuck_turner_grooms_successor_targets_foes/?page=full

READ MORE - Turner grooms successor, targets foes Heads to prison after e-mail flurry

Chuck Turner goes out roaring

Chuck Turner goes out roaring
By Colneth Smiley Jr.  |   Friday, March 25, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Politics

Photo by Herald File

On the eve of his departure for a three-year prison sentence, Chuck Turner last night gave a barn-burning speech — billed as “Framing the Innocent” — to an overflow crowd of rapturous supporters at Northeastern University.

“If we’re allowing the prosecutors to target those who are speaking up and trying to bring justice and we’re allowing them to tear them down, then obviously we’re not going to be able to achieve our other objectives in terms of equity,” he said. “We can’t allow the system to be controlled by rogues who are operating in the interests of the oligarchy rather than the interests of the people of the country.”

The longtime city councilor was convicted last fall of accepting a bribe from an FBI informant.

His address — interrupted repeatedly by applause — drew 130 supporters inside and dozens outside the lecture-style classroom, and Turner exited to a crowd chanting “Chuck! Chuck!”

Turner told the waiting backers to visit supportchuck turner.com, and urged his former constituents to become his pen pals.

“I’m going to be sent to Hazleton Penetentiary, a minimum-security camp in front of the maximum-security prison,” in Bruceton Mills, W.Va., Turner said.

“I put my address in the (Bay State) Banner so people can write to me.”

The ex-councilor promised to write back.

“I intend to keep writing, particularly about things that are going on in Boston,” he said.

“I think sharing my perspectives with everyone will be helpful in terms of the community keeping together.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1325942

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A stitch to pass the time

A stitch to pass the time

By James Hinton  |   Friday, March 25, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Politics

A crocheting expert yesterday said convicted City Councilor Chuck Turner may well benefit from the arts and crafts program offered at the low-security satellite camp at the federal Hazelton penitentiary.

“I have had several customers that have learned to knit and crochet while incarcerated and they’re really pretty skilled at it,” said Annissa Essaibi-George, owner of Stitch House in Dorchester. “I know for lots of my customers it’s a way of distracting yourself from any personal challenges you may be facing.”

Essaibi-George noted the age-old art offers mental-health benefits that have made it an increasingly popular pastime for law-abiding citizens and cons alike.

“Lots of people do take crocheting and knitting as a relaxing technique, because it is a way of releasing tension and anxiety,” she said. “They definitely take it up as a hobby for therapeutic purposes.”

Turner will have three years to master the art — and the populist politician may come to value the egalitarian culture of crocheters.

“In knitting circles our only initial bond is our craft, so under regular circumstances I might not have too much in common with a convicted criminal, but crafts help bring people together,” Essaibi-George said. “It’s a nice opportunity for people to come together and meet on a mutual playing field.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1325934

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Locked up, but not shutting up

Locked up, but not shutting up

By Peter Gelzinis  |   Friday, March 25, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Columnists

As expected, Chuck Turner did not go gently into that miserable night of prison.

Personally, I like that.

There’s something endearing about Chuck going off to jail in West Virginia with his fists clenched, screaming about how he was “set up” by the morally bankrupt FBI before a crowd of supporters at Northeastern University last night.

It’s just too bad Chuck didn’t scream about all this three years ago, when Ron Wilburn slipped a wad of cash in his palm.

That’s when Chuck, the community activist, the grassroots pol, the old social radical should have gone to the press and yelled, “They’re trying to frame me!” That’s when we might have believed him.

But he didn’t. Instead, Chuck took the dough.

Those who love him foolishly continue to argue against visual evidence of cash being tucked into Chuck’s fist, in what he would infamously call “a preacher’s handshake.”

“What if it was only 20 bucks instead of a thousand?” one true believer argued yesterday. Sadly, you can’t seem to convince them a bribe is a bribe is a bribe. The amount is not the point.

It’s the breach of trust, the grabbing of the cash.

Make no mistake about it, Chuck Turner is right when he talks about the moral bankruptcy of the FBI. Their history in Boston is indeed deplorable.

The federal government has already shelled out well more than $100 million in damages to people who were framed and/or murdered by FBI informants.

Sadly for Chuck, he’s not one of these victims.

Some people, including Joe Salvati, Louis Greco and Peter Limone, got framed by the FBI. While others, such as Chuck Turner, got hooked.

There’s a difference, a big difference.

Chuck Turner, like a great big fish, took the bait that was dangled in front of him.

It is baffling because Turner was never known as a “player.” He never seemed to be about money or the trappings of political power. And yet, he cuffed that wad of cash from Ron Wilburn like an old pro.

At the end of a long conversation yesterday, one of Chuck’s close friends admitted that he “might have made a mistake in judgment.”

He then rightly asked, “Does he deserve three years in prison for that?”

The answer is no. Chuck is going to jail for three years because he didn’t apologize. He’s going to jail for three years because he didn’t cop a plea, or beg for mercy, or stop saying bad things about former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan.

In truth, he’s also going to jail for three years because we don’t really know how many other “preacher’s handshakes” he pocketed over the years.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1325930

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Chuck Turner in store for crochet & chili dogs Prison knot so tough for cell-ebrity

Chuck Turner in store for crochet & chili dogs
Prison knot so tough for cell-ebrity

By Laurel J. Sweet and Dave Wedge | Friday, March 25, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Politics

Photo by Christopher Evans
Deposed politician Chuck Turner today will trade his view of Fort Hill for the Appalachian Mountains as he reports for a three-year hitch at Club Fed — 577 miles from the City Council office he sacrificed for a $1,000 kickback.

The 70-year-old Harvard University alum will likely be admitted to a minimum-security, dormitory-style camp at the Hazelton big house in Bruceton Mills, W.Va. — a facility nestled in the hills of Preston County, where he will be able to partake of crochet classes, drawing, painting and what an inmate orientation handbook calls “paper arts.” The camp has no locking cells, offers periodic Town Hall meetings for airing gripes and serves up fare including oatmeal, fruit, chili dogs, Tater Tots, lasagna and chicken fajitas, according to the Bureau of Federal Prisons.

Fellow New England politicians who belong to the elite ex-con fraternity yesterday had encouraging words for the Roxbury rabble-rouser.

“It’s just one day at a time,” said former state Sen. Joseph Timilty, 72, who served four months at a federal prison in Pennsylvania for mortgage fraud in the 1990s. “In order to get through that thing, you have to be disciplined.”

“Find the humor in it,” advised former Providence Mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, 69, who logged four years at FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey on corruption charges. “There’s humor in everything.”

Turner, who represented District 7 for 11 years, was convicted last fall of accepting a bribe to push a nightclub liquor license for a Hub businessman secretly taping him for the FBI.

At Hazelton, according to the inmate orientation handbook, the ex-councilor will be allowed to sport the hairstyle of his preference (bald), and his beard and goatee can stay. He may not walk around with his underpants showing. The knit caps will have to stay home — only slammer-approved headgear allowed.

Inmates at the camp are customarily assigned to sling hash, landscape or perform general maintenance.

“It’s not a country club,” said Cianci of his own experience. “It’s not like those in charge were cruise directors in their previous lives. There are rules. If you mess up, you’ll find yourself in trouble.”

Turner will not, of course, be the only Bay State solon behind bars tomorrow.

Former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, 55, is two weeks into her own three-year bribery stint at the minimum-security camp at FCI Danbury in Connecticut.

“The fortunate part about her situation is she’s close to home,” said son Cornell Mills, an also-ran to succeed Turner in City Hall. “West Virginia is like another country.”

Mills plans to visit Wilkerson for the first time this weekend. He said she finds Danbury to be “very low-key” and is “looking forward to doing some teaching.”

Danbury is also where Patrice Tierney, 60, wife of U.S. Rep. John Tierney (D-Salem), on March 15 completed a monthlong stint for aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns by her fugitive brother. The prison was previously the home-away-from-home of Boston Mayor James Michael Curley (mail fraud) and “Queen of Mean” hotel tycoon Leona Helmsley (tax evasion).

As for Turner, when he reports to Hazelton today, he will be screened for any medical, psychological or security issues, said Bureau of Federal Prisons spokesman Chris Burke.

“Chuck will be all right,” Timilty said. “I was treated fairly. You don’t get any special treatment and you don’t seek any special treatment.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1325917

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Chuck Turner's last stand

Chuck Turner's last stand

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Chuck Turner is going to jail, but it's the Feds who should be hanging their heads in shame

Chuck Turner is going to jail, but it's the Feds who should be hanging their heads in shame
Power play


By KYLE SMEALLIE AND HARVEY SILVERGLATE  |  March 23, 2011


Chuck Turner reports to prison Friday. If his sentence sticks, that's where the 70-year-old former Boston city councilor will spend the next three years.

Turner was convicted of attempted extortion, for accepting a bribe from a paid FBI informant, and also of giving false statements to federal officials, for lying about it to investigators. But there is much more to the case. Stepping back, it becomes clear that Turner was targeted by the FBI because he refused to play ball and build the government's case against another Massachusetts politician, former state senator Dianne Wilkerson. This is all about federal power — the power to destroy any who won't cooperate with the government's agenda.

At the beginning, this investigation was about the lucrative business of alcohol; in particular, how the city of Boston doles out coveted liquor licenses. By all indications, Wilkerson was on the take. She accepted multiple cash hand-offs (totaling $23,500) and appeared to initiate legislative action in return.

But in this mess, where does Turner fit?

US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz asserted that investigators "began with Wilkerson and followed the trail to Turner," the Boston Globe reported. But this was a trail blazed by the FBI itself. The connection, FBI agents testified, was a June 2007 e-mail Wilkerson sent to multiple city councilors, including Turner, concerning liquor-license distribution. Without explicitly stating so, her e-mail suggests that the licensing board improperly delayed approval of certain African-American applicants.

The next day, Turner responded to Wilkerson and several other city councilors: "I will send you a proposed hearing order to see if it appropriately frames the issues." Turner wanted to hold a hearing. This is what Turner did all the time. Yet this was evidence enough for the FBI to pay an informant some $29,000 and send him to Turner's Roxbury office to "feel him out."

Of course, the now-infamous video, taken August 3, 2007, in Turner's district office, doesn't lie. Turner took something, and it appears to be cash. The feds say it was $1000; Turner testified that he had no idea of the amount. It's important to note, however, that in a departure from standard procedure, the FBI agents did not search the informant, Ronald Wilburn, after the exchange to be certain that he handed all of the cash to Turner.

The amount given to Turner becomes important because local campaign-finance regulations allow candidates to accept cash contributions up to $50, provided it is duly recorded and reported. If the cash given to Turner was $50 or less, his only violation would have been only a minor fundraising-reporting omission.


GAINING LEVERAGE

Turner's counterattack — that he and Wilkerson were targeted because they are black — was unproductive and unverifiable, an allegation that Ortiz quieted easily. Far more difficult to refute is the more likely motivation: the federal government wanted to gain leverage on Turner, so they could pressure him into cooperating with their plans.

Consider, for instance, the absurd notion that Turner was extorting Wilburn. This may seem like hair-splitting legalese, but it speaks to why the case should never have been brought in the first place. Under existing law, bribery of state officials — payments initiated by the citizen — is not a distinct federal crime. Extortion, however, is. But extortion requires some kind of threat — the public official demanding, for example, payment to refrain from harming the citizen's interests. By all indications, Wilburn didn't fear retaliation if he didn't pay up.

At any rate, Turner would not have made an effective extortionist. His hallmark was holding hearings, not necessarily getting results. There is a role for such officials in public life, of course. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said, sunlight is the best disinfectant, and Turner specialized in casting sunlight.

Prosecutors, oddly, conceded that Turner had little to sell. "There is substantial doubt," they asserted in a memorandum requesting a heavy prison sentence, "about Turner's effectiveness as a public servant." A strange assertion, for if he could not get approvals from the licensing board, why would any businessman succumb to his supposed extortion demands? This is more than a mere detail, for it weighs heavily toward a conclusion that Turner saw the Wilburn payment as an ordinary campaign contribution, rather than a payoff.

One might think that the news media would pick up on this. But from the moment the feds leaked the grainy photos of the handoff, the reporting angle (with a few exceptions, such as WBUR's David Boeri) was all but set: the press saw red meat. Reporters perhaps lost sight of the fact that, in their role as watchdog over government conduct, the actions of the feds deserved as much, if not more, scrutiny than the likely very minor improprieties of a city pol. If voters don't like Turner, or if they smell a whiff of dishonesty, they can express their displeasure at the ballot box. But if those same citizens dislike what federal prosecutors and FBI agents are doing in the people's name and on their dime, they have little practical recourse.

Which makes all the more revolting the fact that prosecutors, in their memorandum requesting 33 to 41 months in prison for Turner, used the politician's own overheated statements against him — in essence asking the court to punish him for his free speech. By asserting that the investigation was racially motivated, Turner's words "have been corrosive to respect for important public institutions and the rule of law," prosecutors argued to Judge Douglas Woodlock.


THROWING BOULDERS

Coming from the Massachusetts US Attorney's Office, in connection with a case launched by the Boston FBI office, the feds's air of piety was nothing short of stomach-churning. Just last month, a federal appeals court saw fit to deny compensation to the family of an innocent man gunned down as a result of the Boston FBI's office working with the mobster Whitey Bulger. And federal prosecutor Jeffrey Auerhahn, found by another judge to have hidden evidence that could have shown that a man convicted of murder was innocent, continues to serve in the US Attorney's Office.

Even if prosecutors were throwing boulders from their glass house, the onus was ultimately on Woodlock to see through this ruse. In this regard, he utterly failed, seeing fit to hand down a shockingly harsh three-year sentence — only a few months shorter than that of Wilkerson, a repeat offender. Woodlock took specific issue with Turner's testimony, finding it implausible that the 70-year-old couldn't remember meeting the FBI's informant.

But Woodlock, a former corruption prosecutor turned judge, perhaps unsurprisingly didn't see the bigger picture. He didn't see the possibility — indeed, the likelihood — that the feds led Turner into a scenario that appeared far more pernicious than the reality. He didn't see that a local politician was targeted by federal prosecutors for not helping them build their case against Wilkerson.

In the quest for Turner's scalp, neither federal law-enforcement authorities, nor the supposedly independent federal judiciary and news media, properly played the roles assigned to them in our constitutional system — which continues to suffer mightily under the weight of stings and set-ups that too often mask, rather than reveal, the truth.

Kyle Smeallie can be reached at kyle@harveysilverglate.com. Harvey Silverglate can be reached at harvey@harveysilverglate.com.

READ MORE - Chuck Turner is going to jail, but it's the Feds who should be hanging their heads in shame

ALL NEW HD VIDEO: Attack on Black Leadership Forum

BLACKSTONIAN EXCLUSIVE
BOSTON COLOR TV EXCLUSIVE

TRAILER

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Rumored corruption

Rumored corruption

BY: PAUL MCMORROW

March 18, 2011

THE FBI USED Ron Wilburn, and then tossed him aside. The feds got Wilburn, a Roxbury businessman, to wear a wire while passing bribes to Dianne Wilkerson and Chuck Turner. But after snaring the two black Boston politicians, they shut their investigation down, leaving all sorts of white political crooks untouched. That’s Wilburn’s take on his role in the sting that netted Wilkerson and Turner stiff federal prison sentences.

For two years now, Wilburn has been a bitter critic of federal investigators and prosecutors. He stopped cooperating with the feds in February 2009, telling the Globe he was angry that their investigation hadn’t snagged anyone else inside City Hall or the State House. His anger at the prosecution was so great that he considered refusing to testify at Turner’s trial, telling the Globe, “You mean to tell me that the only people investigated in terms of criminal wrongdoing were Dianne and Chuck Turner? There's no way.”

Wilburn is right in that aspect. In their investigation into Wilkerson’s criminality, federal prosecutors looked into a number of Boston politicians and businessmen. Investigators also asked Wilburn for everything he had, and for every lead he could provide. Wilburn failed to provide them with much of anything to work with.

Hundreds of pages of newly unsealed documents in the Wilkerson case shed fresh light on federal investigators’ scrutiny of City Hall and State House officials. Wilburn’s grand jury testimony, in particular, shows federal prosecutors inquiring about several prominent Boston figures.

Wilburn’s testimony shows federal prosecutors inquiring about Daniel Pokaski, the former head of the Boston Licensing Board; Steven Miller, an attorney whose law firm specializes in securing liquor licenses in Boston; Arthur Winn, the real estatedeveloper behind a South End mega-development that was a pet cause of Wilkerson’s; the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, whom Wilkerson met with about casino gambling; developers Edward Zuker and Ed Fish; and contractor and Jay Cashman.

No one other than Turner has been accused of any wrongdoing, let alone charged, in connection with the Wilkerson case. Whether or not there was a bigger case to be built – the investigation officially remains open, but hasn’t shown any public momentum – the questions prosecutors asked Wilburn suggest investigators were certainly trying to build a bigger case. For all his anger at the feds, Wilburn’s grand jury testimony helps explain why Wilkerson and Turner have been the only two public figures to face an indictment.

Wilburn provided the grand jury with extensive testimony about his payments to Wilkerson and Turner, which were captured on tape. They also asked him about anyone else in town – anyone at all – whom he knew to be involved in corruption. He made a number of claims, but offered little in the way of evidence.

Prosecutors asked Wilburn several times about Winn, the Columbus Center developer. Wilburn couldn’t tell them anything they hadn’t already read in the newspaper.

They asked about Fish, long a major contractor and developer in Wilkerson’s district. Wilburn knew nothing.

They asked about Zuker, a developer who loaned Wilkerson $9,000 so the senator could settle an outstanding tax debt; Wilburn didn’t have any information about him. Nor could he reveal anything about Cashman; he simply alleged that anyone who did any construction work in Wilkerson’s district had to pay the senator.

The exchanges regarding Pokaski, the former licensing chairman, and Miller, the licensing attorney, are particularly illustrative. Wilburn had made a number of accusations about Pokaski while he was wearing an FBI wire, but at the grand jury, he testified he wouldn’t be able to prove anything in court.

Prosecutors repeatedly pressed Wilburn for any specifics, in prosecutor John McNeil’s words, “about Steve Miller somehow engaged in nefarious conduct with the licensing board,” and whether “Mr. Miller was somehow passing on any kind of efforts, money, golf, trips anywhere, to anyone on the Licensing Board.”

Wilburn couldn’t offer up anything. The public record is unclear as to whether the FBI enlisted undercover informants to investigate anyone other than Wilkerson or Turner. It appears the FBI pursued Wilkerson based on Wilburn’s claims that he had personally witnessed her taking cash.

Wilburn “doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” says Miller. “He’s delusional.” Miller, whose grand jury testimony has not been made public, said it’s well known that investigators took a hard look at anyone connected to the licensing board. “They looked at everything possible, and there’s nothing there. I’ve been doing this for close to 40 years. People hire us because we know what we’re doing.”

http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/Voices/Back-Story/2011/Winter/Rumored-corruption.aspx

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No silent farewell for Chuck Turner

No silent farewell for Chuck Turner

Photo by Herald file
By Jessica Fargen / Pols & Politics  |   Sunday, March 20, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Politics

Disgraced former City Councilor Chuck Turner, who reports to prison Friday for a three-year sentence, is hoping to get the last word.

Turner, 70, who was convicted of bribery in a federal corruption scandal, is hosting a talk Thursday at Northeastern University titled “Framing the Innocent.”

Turner has frequently alleged that federal law enforcement targeted him. Turner was convicted in October of taking a $1,000 bribe. The talk is being dubbed as Turner’s last public appearance, according to a story on blackstonian.com. The event is a “public discussion about the U.S. Attorney’s Office and what we can do to hold it accountable to our concerns.” It starts at 7:30 p.m. at 240 Dockser Hall.

A reporter who attempted to reach Turner at his Roxbury home yesterday was turned away.

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Roxbury’s future in the "post-racial" era

Roxbury’s future in the "post-racial" era

by Shirley Kressel
contributing writer South End News
http://www.mysouthend.com/index.php?ch=columnists&sc=city_streets&sc2=&sc3=&id=117456
Wednesday Mar 16, 2011

The race for Chuck Turner’s District 7 City Council seat has been fraught with bitter ironies and troubling questions about the future of Boston’s black community.

As the media have amply reported, Senator Dianne Wilkerson and City Councilor Chuck Turner, long-time black leaders, have recently been sent to prison for accepting money from a paid FBI informant in a liquor-license imbroglio. What does this signify for their fragile community?

The candidates, both black men, represent different visions for the District. Cornell Mills is the son of Wilkerson, who broke the color barrier at the state senate in 1993 and pursued an activist legislative career, while Tito Jackson, son of a labor-rights activist, is endorsed by Turner, an old-school firebrand. Interestingly, Mills echoes Turner’s spirit of fighting to protect the poor and disadvantaged, while Jackson pushes further Wilkerson’s talk about business incentives to attract job creation and developers’ gifts to the community.

Jackson has enjoyed far more funding and voter support. However, his experience is in mainstream politics and his campaign chest is filled heavily by white contributors and business interests outside the district. This has sparked concerns about the dilution of the black community’s power to defend against economic and political exploitation.

Indeed, some suspect a larger strategy to neutralize minority defenses against discriminatory governmental policies.

On March 6, I attended a forum in Roxbury titled, "The Attack on Black Leadership: Is there an ongoing effort by the US Government to destabilize the black community by targeting its leadership?" In impromptu remarks, Wilkerson talked about documents she had read indicating that the FBI had been targeting her and Turner for seven years, looking for reasons to prosecute them. Finding none, she said, the Bureau finally hired a black informant to bait them with money.

If her account is accurate, it is extremely alarming. It is at least suspicious that in the FBI’s lengthy investigation of the license issue, only two black officials were (literally) "caught," leaving unbaited and uncharged seven white officials implicated by FBI documents. Turner accused the US Attorney of racial bias and, because there was no evidence of previous wrongdoing by him to constitute probable cause, entrapment. The FBI informant, a black man, expressed anger at this apparently biased outcome and tried to refuse to testify at Turner’s trial.

This week, I came across a 2003 South End News bit on now-deceased City Councilor Jimmy Kelly, reporting his acceptance of unlawful financial contributions: "Infractions included accepting individual contributions over the $500 limit and accepting corporate contributions, which is not allowed at the city level." The full report (pdf) at the Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) website listed numerous violations. Kelly paid a $1,000 fine and made a charity donation of $7,500, equaling the contributions he got from business corporations, excess contributions, excess cash contributions, and money from a federal PAC. The matter was never sent to the Attorney General for further action.

Kelly was proven to have committed financial violations worth about $11,000. He simply settled up financially, with no criminal prosecution.

Turner was never proven committing any offenses -- before the FBI created one. The informant himself later told the Boston Globe that the money (an amount the FBI said, but never proved, was $1,000) that he handed unbidden to a "naïve" Turner while expressing his "gratitude" (with these words, turning Turner’s scheduling of a hearing on licensing discrimination into a crime, as the FBI instructed), "could have been a gift or a campaign donation." As a contribution reporting error with no criminal intent, a civil fine would have ended the story. Instead: felony conviction and three years in federal prison.

Unlike Kelly, Turner’s case was all over the media, inflaming a wave of public venom. The City Council enacted an ordinance to expel him. The two young new minority Councilors, Felix Arroyo, Jr. and Ayanna Pressley, cited him as their mentor as they voted him out.

Why such disparate fates?

Perhaps the answer lies in a Boston Globe editorial: "Turner... isn’t a venal man. ... But he has spread unreality among his supporters for decades. And that may be his greatest crime. In a Boston neighborhood that so desperately needs sensible leadership to address crime, joblessness, and poor education, Turner has fed his constituents a steady diet of political fantasy." Do our media leaders believe that Turner’s punishment for an unproven bribe was justified by his discomfiting politics? The newspapers endorsed Jackson; is he their "sensible leader" -- bringing practical compromises to counter Turner’s audacity of unbending aspirations?

Selective justice is a great injustice, and one well known to the black community. What really happened here? And what will be the impact on a District ripe for -- or vulnerable to -- radical change?


Shirley Kressel is a landscape architect and urban designer, and one of the founders of the Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods. She can be reached at Shirley.Kressel@verizon.net.

READ MORE - Roxbury’s future in the "post-racial" era

Chuck Turner to begin prison term

Chuck Turner to begin prison term

By Associated Press  |   Saturday, March 19, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Politics
Photo by John Wilcox (file)

BOSTON — A former Boston city councilor convicted of taking a $1,000 bribe will begin serving his three year sentence in the coming week.

Chuck Turner was convicted in October of taking the bribe from a businessman who was cooperating with the FBI. He was also convicted of lying to the FBI.

Turner is scheduled to report to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons on Friday to begin serving his sentence. It was unclear where he will serve his time.

Prosecutors said Turner accepted a wad of cash in 2007 during a handshake with a businessman seeking help getting a liquor license. Turner testified he didn’t remember his meeting with the businessman, which was secretly captured on FBI video.

The 70-year-old Turner, a longtime community activist, was expelled from the City Council after his conviction.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1324519

READ MORE - Chuck Turner to begin prison term

Chuck Turner's Last Public Appearance: "Framing the Innocent" Thur. 3/24 7:30pm

Framing the Innocent:

Crimes Under Color of Law at the Massachusetts US Attorney's Office

When: Thursday, March 24, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Northeastern University Law School

       240 Dockser Hall

Confirmed speakers include:

Chuck Turner--Five-term Boston City Councilor representing Roxbury and

Dorchester, and a lifetime activist for social justice, recently targeted by

the FBI and the Massachusetts US Attorney.

Bob Boyle--Attorney representing many activists and political prisoners

targeted by the FBI's infamous Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO)

Laila Murad--Organizer from the Tarek Mehanna Support Committee

Michael Avery--Professor of Law, Suffolk Law School, won a landmark civil suit against the Boston FBI on behalf of four men wrongfully convicted of murder

***

Over the past few years, an atrocious history of government misconduct at

the Massachusetts US Attorney's office has emerged in the court record, but

few people have heard about it.

In the case Ferrara v. US, the court found that US Assistant Attorney

Jeffrey Auerhahn worked with an FBI agent to coerce a witness into

maintaining false testimony, withheld evidence of the witness's recantation

from defense counsel, and perjured himself in court. Other members of the

office have:

--Withheld information about misconduct by FBI agents

--Consistently and deliberately withheld evidence of the innocence of

defendants from defense counsel and from the court

The head of the Massachusetts US Attorney's office has shielded assistants

and acted to cover-up government misconduct. Auerhahn was given

responsibility to prosecute "terrorism" cases, where he continues to handle

government informants and "cooperating witnesses."

The Massachusetts US Attorney has also demonstrated a clear set of political

priorities: contempt for basic civil liberties and due process rights; an

anti-immigrant agenda; selective prosecution of black political leaders; and

the prosecution of an overwhelming number of indigent defendants and people

of color.

Although the US Attorney's office has extraordinary power, people who are

concerned about government abuses have paid comparatively little attention

to its role within the criminal justice system.

Come participate in a public discussion about the Massachusetts US

Attorney's Office and what we can do to hold it accountable to our concerns.

READ MORE - Chuck Turner's Last Public Appearance: "Framing the Innocent" Thur. 3/24 7:30pm

Path cleared by downfall

Blackstonian Editor's Note:
This may be the most offensive article in the entire media coverage of the Wilkerson case. I usually just post things and let the readers draw their own conclusions. In this case however, you must notice the obvious slant here and the sick pleasure received from this tragedy.

(photo by Don West, individual rights)

Path cleared by downfall
By Brian McGrory
Globe Columnist / March 16, 2011

Can you actually send a thank you note to someone in federal prison? If so: Dear Dianne Wilkerson, Inmate, Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, thank you for clearing the way — unintentionally so — for some real leadership in the minority communities.

I was thinking this as I stood in a crowded second-floor room in a nondescript building in the South End one morning this week where young children and their parents are given the kind of rare helping hand that a frightening number of lawmakers would ax in the name of tax cuts and deficit reduction.

US Senator John F. Kerry was taking a tour. Say what you will about Kerry, he has taken on the Republicans over the federal budget with a vengeance, telling anyone who will listen that we’ve arrived at a moment that will define this country for many years to come.

But before Kerry stepped to the microphones, there was Sonia Chang-Díaz, the state senator who won the office that Dianne Wilkerson was forced to leave. “We used to say ‘women and children first’ in the lifeboats,’’ Chang Diaz said amid a brief speech that was at once firm and fiery. “Now it’s women and children last, and millionaires first.’’

Also present, Ayanna Pressley, the new Boston city councilor at-large who is rapidly becoming the face of the black community in the halls of power. When I asked her how she was doing, she said without flinching, “About as well as a person can be doing when everything they’ve ever believed in is under attack.’’

Felix Arroyo was also there, the same at-large councilor who is often promoted as a likely and formidable mayoral candidate in the future. He listened to parents describe how important the federally funded, ABCD-administered Head Start program was to their families, then slipped out before being given the stage. Imagine that, a politician who doesn’t consider his or her voice the most important one to be heard?

Chang-Díaz, Pressley, and Arroyo could pass for actors on a Fox primetime drama about inner city politics — “Mean Streets,’’ if you will — each of them young, attractive, and well-spoken. But the reality is their collective cause is painfully real and quietly carried forth. “These people live on the planet Earth,’’ the Rev. Eugene Rivers said of them yesterday. Added the Rev. Ray Hammond: “We’re going through a period of generational change, and we’ve got some great people rising up in leadership.’’

So back to Wilkerson for a moment, as well as to Chuck Turner, the ousted city councilor who disgraced himself more with his carpet-bombing reaction to the federal indictment and conviction than the bribe that he pocketed in his self-described “preacher’s handshake.’’

Before heading down I-84 toward Danbury last week, Wilkerson indulged her penchant for accusation rather than contrition. Specifically, she accused Hammond and Bishop Gideon Thompson of working with federal authorities to get her indicted — “doing the damage,’’ in her words. Hammond and Thompson both said they didn’t work with the FBI, and it is absurd to think that their help was even necessary.

“It was a cheap shot at people who’ve made a difference in the city of Boston,’’ Tom Menino said yesterday. Added Rivers: “Why on your way out the door would you trash two of the nicest guys in town, completely honorable men?’’

Because that’s just who Wilkerson is. In a state with a black governor who is close friends with our black president, Wilkerson and Turner lacked the talent and temperament to ever get out of their own way. It’s always easier to blame than achieve, or as Rivers said of the convicted duo, “They were all protest, no programs.’’

Say this for our new frustrated felons, though: At least they were kind enough to show the new generation of minority leaders exactly how not to handle the public trust.

Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com.

READ MORE - Path cleared by downfall

Councilor Jackson If You're Nasty

Councilor Jackson If You're Nasty

Published Mar 16 2011, 10:22 AM by David S. Bernstein, Boston Phoenix

Congratulations to Tito Jackson, who scored a convincing win over Cornell Mills yesterday and will be the new Boston City Councilor from District 7. Topping the 80% mark should make him safe in the rapid-turnaround defense of his seat this fall; Mills is likely to try again, but that's a big mountain to climb, and others will probably stay out.

That said, the low turnout numbers mean that Jackson enters office with considerably less political power than one might have anticipated. Vote totals matter in this town. If you're seen as bringing a large vote, you're a valuable ally for anyone looking to run city-wide, now or in the future -- which applies to almost everybody in Boston politics. Yes, it was a special election, in a weird time of year for an election, but still... if I'm Steve Murphy or John Connolly or even Tom Menino right now, I'm more interested in sucking up to Felix Arroyo or Matt O'Malley than Tito Jackson, given those vote totals.

One other observation: the two newest city councilors, O'Malley and Jackson, took very similar paths to office. They both ran solid but losing races for at-large seats, followed by high-level roles in statewide campaigns (Pagliuca and Grossman for O'Malley, Deval Patrick for Jackson), and then took advantage of mid-term openings to win district seats. One might suggest that both used their out-of-district networks -- for volunteers, name-recognition, and funding -- to overwhelm the in-district competition. (Also note that in both cases the top opponent had the advantage of bloodline networks: Maura Hennigan's brother and Dianne Wilkerson's son, respectively.)

Read more: http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/talkingpolitics/archive/2011/03/16/councilor-jackson-if-you-re-nasty.aspx#ixzz1H3asaisx

READ MORE - Councilor Jackson If You're Nasty

VIDEO!!! 3/6/11 Forum "Attack on Black Leadership"

BLACKSTONIAN EXCLUSIVE
in conjunction with Boston Praise Radio

VIDEO!!! 3/6/11 Forum "Attack on Black Leadership"

READ MORE - VIDEO!!! 3/6/11 Forum "Attack on Black Leadership"

TODAY!!! “THE ATTACK ON BLACK LEADERSHIP” Forum Sun. March 6th Hibernian Hall 5-8pm

COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS JOIN FOR ROXBURY FORUM

“THE ATTACK ON BLACK LEADERSHIP”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Jamarhl Crawford
blackstonian@verizon.net   617-297-7721

-Boston, MA- Local activists have joined in order to conduct a community forum which will be an examination into what is widely perceived as a deliberate “Attack on Black Leadership”.  The forum will be held Sunday, March 6th from 5pm – 8pm @Hibernian Hall 184 Dudley St. Roxbury.  Speakers will consist of Prof. Charles Ogletree (who serves as Sen. Dianne Wilkerson’s Attorney), King Downing (formerly of the ACLU, currently Ex. Dir. Human Rights Racial Justice Center), Prof. Robert Johnson (UMass Boston Africana Studies Dept., Author of “Race, Law & Public Policy”) and a presentation on surveillance in Boston by Kade Crockford (ACLU of MA, Privacy Rights Coordinator).

Organizer Jamarhl Crawford said “This forum will seek to answer the very basic question ‘Is there an ongoing effort by the US Government to destabilize the Black Community by targeting its leadership?’ While this question may sound like conspiracy theory to some, we have to examine the fact that the United States government has used its resources *to monitor, frame and in many cases assassinate Black leaders. Now that we have the information on programs like CoIntelPro and **Operation Fruehmenschen which were standard practice in the not so distant past, we must ask and answer this question to determine if the very same thing is happening in our present.”

The forum will discuss historical practices of the government’s targeting of Black leadership and organizations, modern day surveillance and information gathering tactics as well as an open discussion of the recent local federal cases against Chuck Turner and Dianne Wilkerson.

EVENT Sponsors:  New Democracy Coalition, Center for Church & Prisons, Union of Minority Neighborhoods, Human Rights Racial Justice Center, Blackstonian.com, 10,000 Strong Boston, Voices of Liberation, Pastor Bruce Wall, Bishop Filipe Teixeira, ACLU of Massachusetts, National Action Network-Boston

*Individuals & Organizations Targeted by the Government: Adam Clayton Powell, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, Elijah Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan, Stokely Carmichael, Fred Hampton, Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, NAACP, SNCC, Black Panther Party, Nation of Islam, New Black Panther Party

**Operation Fruehmenschen (launched by no later than 1977) was the FBI's own designation for the Justice Department/FBI campaign to frame-up, jail, & drive from office, hundreds of African-American elected officials, because, in the words of one FBI agent, high ranking officials at the Bureau believed that “black officials were intellectually and socially incapable of governing major governmental organizations and situations.''

###

READ MORE - TODAY!!! “THE ATTACK ON BLACK LEADERSHIP” Forum Sun. March 6th Hibernian Hall 5-8pm

Dianne Wilkerson: ‘You gotta move on’ Ex-senator speaks out

Dianne Wilkerson: ‘You gotta move on’
Ex-senator speaks out
By Colneth Smiley Jr.  |   Saturday, March 5, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Politics

Photo by John Wilcox

Former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, who next week will begin serving 42 months on a federal bribery conviction, yesterday sat down with a Herald reporter to reflect on being “set up” by the feds, the “harsh” sentence she and ex-City Councilor Chuck Turner received and her plans for future public service. Following, for the first time since her indictment, Dianne in her own words.

Q: What’s your message to your constituents?

A: None of us are perfect. My message was and still is not that God expects you to never make a mistake. You’re gonna get judged on how you handle it when you make it. My advice to everyone, and I have to take my own advice, is that if you do, you gotta own up to it. You have to own it, you gotta stand up, you gotta own it, you gotta shake it off and you gotta move on. You gotta move on and that’s where I am. I don’t have any ‘woe is me,’ no bitterness as I start this next phase. . . . I want this piece to be over because I still have things that I want to do. And I want to get back to my family, to my community to resume the public work and try in every way, in every breath that I have and every moment that I have, in every breath that I take, to make up for the lost time and for the disappointment — whatever disappointment that people have.

Q: As far as you know, are you the only political figure to accept money for helping people with liquor licenses, legislation or anything else?

A: It’s a difficult question to answer. . . . I think that the practice in Massachusetts — both the practice and the policy — is fraught with gray areas where I do think there are probably elected officials who are engaging in activity that they even believe to be legal — which in fact it could be under our state law and may not be at all under federal law.

Q: Do you think anyone else should have been indicted? At City Hall? The State House? In the private sector?

A: This was a very purposeful, targeted, specific investigation where the federal government chose the defendants and then created the crime. And that’s a fact. In knowing that, if you’re asking me do I wish they had set somebody else up, my answer is no. . . . There should be little question with a little bit of investigation if this was a purposeful targeting where the FBI and the Boston police went out and hired and recruited informants, brought them from other parts of the country to pose specifically for the purpose and enlisted their full support in collaboration with Ron Wilburn to pose as friends of his for the sole purpose of ensnaring Sen. Diane Wilkerson and City Councilor Chuck Turner in their net. So in giving that, if you’re asking me if I wish they had done it to someone else, the answer is no. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody.

Q: Do you think your sentence was unfair compared to U.S. Rep. John F. Tierney’s wife, Patrice Tierney, and former House Speaker Tom Finneran?

A: I think that the sentence imposed was harsh for me and even more harsh for Chuck Turner, given what I know about the facts of the case and how we got here. Yeah, I do. I think that the problem is it creates a whole new level and a bar that suggests if you sentence someone this harshly for a set of circumstances wholly created by the FBI and the U.S. attorneys created to ensnare them, what do you do when you have people who actually devise their own plan and get caught? . . . No. I don’t think it was fair, and I think it’s even more unfair for Chuck because of what I know about it. How the decision and the conversation that got him into this, like I said, was literally, ‘We’ve always suspected he’s been doing something. Let’s throw him in the mix,’ which shouldn’t instill any comfort in a population, in a people, about the justice and the fairness of the legal system. It’s the best one in the world and it works best when it works right and I would say this time it didn’t work right.

Q: Do you have a reading list for prison?

A: Not only do I have a reading list, but I plan to speak fluent Spanish by the time I’m done. That’s No. 1. I’m not going to sit idle. . . . I hope I am able to do some teaching. I can do GED, ESL classes, it doesn’t matter. I’m not sure what will be available but I taught before I came to the Senate so it’s not a new thing for me. I like the idea. . . . It could be an exciting opportunity.

Q: What are your plans for after prison?

A: To immediately re-engage in a process that allows me to serve the public in some way. I have more specific detail, which I’m not going to say, but whatever it is, it’s going to be serving the public because that’s what I enjoy.

Q: What do you think your legacy is?

A: I’m only in about halfway through the book.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1321161

READ MORE - Dianne Wilkerson: ‘You gotta move on’ Ex-senator speaks out