Massachusetts senate president resigns

[steve from amherst]

Bowing to pressure, Rosenberg resigns after 31 years

 

Stanley C. Rosenberg, who overcame a traumatic youth to become one of the state’s most powerful legislators and used his position to help protect gay marriage, legalize casino gambling, and enact sweeping change to criminal justice laws, announced Thursday that he is resigning in the wake of a damning ethics report about his conduct and judgment.

The Senate accepted the former Senate president’s resignation and endorsed the findings of an investigation that found Rosenberg abrogated his leadership responsibilities by giving his accused serial predator husband, Bryon Hefner, essentially unfettered access to the Senate.

The Senate Committee on Ethics investigation was prompted by a Globe story in November. That article reported allegations from four men who said Hefner had sexually assaulted and harassed them and bragged he could influence Senate business.

Senator Michael J. Rodrigues, the committee’s chairman, credited Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham for revealing the alleged wrongdoing. “As painful as this episode is,” he said, “perhaps it was a small step taken in restoring people’s faith in government, and underscoring the importance of a free, open, and accurate media in our society.”

“I think it was appropriate for him to step down,” Baker said Thursday. “And I was glad he did.”

According to two people close to Rosenberg, he made the decision to resign in part because he felt his colleagues would move to expel him if he tried to remain. Senators had conveyed to Rosenberg that some staff members said they did not feel safe around him because of his handling of Hefner’s alleged acts of sexual assault.

Using information gleaned from hundreds of thousands of Senate e-mails and 19,000 text messages, the attorneys determined Rosenberg gave Hefner full access to his official e-mail and did not do enough to prevent Hefner from meddling in Senate business — despite Rosenberg knowing his partner could be “disruptive, volatile, and abusive.”

Hefner, 30, was also a pernicious presence in Rosenberg’s life, the report found, repeatedly engaging in behavior that ranged from childish to criminal.

He texted pictures of nude men to Rosenberg, who “was angered by it because ‘a few times’ he accidentally opened a picture of a naked man from Hefner in a meeting and had to quickly hide his phone so other people would not see [the] picture,” the report found.

Hefner was indicted in March. Rosenberg maintained that he had not known about Hefner’s alleged criminal acts

[hwytohell]

Did you catch what is missing from this article ??

[Turf]

Democrat ?

[DriftBusta]

3 minutes ago, Turf said:

Democrat ?

Ding Ding Ding    Oh, and Anal Wart noting that he's a Joo.

[Carlos Danger]

There was a time when the Senate President in Mass would just give a lightly veiled threat that his gangster brother would have you killed if you stepped to far out of line. This Degraded to being sexually harassed with the threat of sodomy. Oh how times have changed in the Commonwealth. 

[Carlos Danger]

54 minutes ago, hwytohell said:

Did you catch what is missing from this article ??

If he were a Republican the headline would read.  "REPUBLICAN SENATOR AND TRUMP ASSOCIATE FORCED TO RESIGN OVER SEXUALL HARRASSMENT CHARGES"

[steve from amherst]

43 minutes ago, Turf said:

Democrat ?

Well it did mention he was a cocksucker. But in a nicer way.

[Snake]

Exactly how many top legislative democrats from Mass are total disgraces?

And they have the nerve to diss Trump.

[Snake]

Rosenberg is resigning as of 5 p.m. today — the first time his snout will have been out of the public trough since Jimmy Carter was president. Although of course now the pension kicks in, because he wasn’t expelled, he resigned, due to ill health.

Everybody was sick of Stan.

The Senate Ethics Committee’s report on the sordid behavior of the two newlyweds is so squalid, so tawdry that even Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw must be embarrassed for their fellow liberal.

Rosenberg is now 68, and Pee-wee — I mean Bryon — is 30. Young enough, in other words, to be the solon’s grandson. Yet by his own (repeated) admission in the Senate Ethics Committee report, the infatuated sugar daddy and his staff knew that Hefner was “a mentally ill person who regularly abused alcohol, and their general understanding was that they could not control his behavior.”

And yet he did nothing about it.

Pee-wee was also in the habit of making racist comments “from time and time,” including slurring a person of color on Stan’s staff.

Judging from his texts, he was also close to functionally illiterate — he types “amendable” for “amenable,” and predicts Tall Deval will be “reflected,” as opposed to “re-elected.” Of course, maybe Hefner was just drunk.

The happy couple also liked to exchange X-rated texts, or as the report modestly calls them, “graphic, sexualized text messages.”

Like on Nov. 19, 2015, when Hefner tells his geriatric boyfriend to “fire everyone and replace them with republicans,” and Rosenberg texts back, “Not everyone. U r still lusting after (redacted).”

On May 28, 2016, Byron texted the Senate president: “I want to roofie (a Senator) and make a sex tape.”

All Whitey wanted to do was murder people at the State House who crossed the Senate president. Oh sure, Whitey liked ’em young (or so Stevie Flemmi testified) but he had no interest in roofie-ing any senators of either sex. At least as far as we know.

Despite his advanced age, Rosenberg often took the cyber initiative, as in March 2016 when he “initiated sexualized text messages with Hefner about the spouse of another elected official.”

Nothing says “I love you” like sending your betrothed photos of a naked stranger. Just ask Sen. Rosenberg, “because ‘a few times’ he accidentally opened a picture of a naked man from Hefner in a meeting and had to quickly hide his phone so other people would not see picture.”

Say what you will about Whitey Bulger, but he never, ever texted X-rated shots to his brother, the Senate president.

Then there was the time in 2014 — I guess you could say they were “engaged” then — when the betrothed went to another politician’s Christmas party.

“At one point in the evening Sen. Rosenberg saw Hefner show his iPhone to the host and observed the host have a negative reaction. As he was leaving the residence the host whispered in Sen. Rosenberg’s ear that he had ‘to get rid’ of Hefner.”

But they were in love, don’t you know!

“Sen. Rosenberg was aware: (1) that Hefner routinely expressed in graphic terms sexual interest in members of the Senate and Senate staff; (2) that Hefner downloaded and texted images of nude men and male gentilia; (3) that Hefner inappropriately displayed such images to another Senator….”

They’re not too happy in Happy Valley this morning. Sen. Sugar Daddy has struck out. Fortunately, CBS News has an opening. So does NBC. Move over Charlie and Tom, here comes Stan the Man Rosenberg.

[Kivalo]

X-rated pictures are worse than murder & extorsion? 

[Snake]

48 minutes ago, Kivalo said:

X-rated pictures are worse than murder & extorsion? 

You're still talking about Mass...

[Carlos Danger]

41 minutes ago, Kivalo said:

X-rated pictures are worse than murder & extorsion? 

Think about this guy skulking around the state house for 30 years all the while his fellow Democrats promoting this pervert to Higher and more central positions of power. At Least Bulger held a loaded Mobster brother to the head of his fellow legislators to climb to leadership positions.  The Mass Democrat rank and file legislator is why I will never vote for another Democrat in my life time.

[Kivalo]

So then what you're saying is nudie pics are worse than murder & extorsion.

Got it.  :nuts:

 

[steve from amherst]

21 hours ago, Snake said:

Exactly how many top legislative democrats from Mass are total disgraces?

And they have the nerve to diss Trump.

On Sunday, January 25, 2009, DiMasi sent a letter to all members of the House informing them of his resignation from both his position as speaker of the House and his seat in the House, effective at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, January 27.^[16] His resignation made DiMasi the third straight Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives to leave office under a legal or ethical cloud

 

 

Salvatore DiMasi

On June 15, 2011, DiMasi was convicted on seven of the nine charges. His co-defendant, lobbyist Richard McDonough, was also convicted of taking part in the conspiracy.^[22]

On September 9, 2011, DiMasi was sentenced to eight years in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge Mark Lawrence Wolf and ordered to pay a fine of $65,000. The judge also sentenced DiMasi to two years of supervised release after completing his sentence.

 

Thomas Finneran

On January 5, 2007, prior to the start of the scheduled criminal trial^[13] Finneran pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice in exchange for federal prosecutors' dropping perjury charges against him; the plea bargain allowed him to avoid jail time.^[12] Federal prosecutors and lawyers for Finneran recommended that the once-powerful figure on Beacon Hill receive 18 months of unsupervised probation and a $25,000 fine. In return, Finneran agreed not to run for any elected political position in state, federal or municipal government for five years after his sentencing date. The US Attorney's office agreed to dismiss three counts of perjury against Finneran.

Charles Flaherty

In 1996, Flaherty agreed to plead guilty to felony tax evasion for submitting false receipts regarding his business expenses.^[2] In addition, he also admitted to civil violations of state conflict of interest law for receiving free vacation housing from lobbyists

[DriftBusta]

Wow I had no idea they were that dirty in the Mass house.

[Snake]

6 minutes ago, DriftBusta said:

Wow I had no idea they were that dirty in the Mass house.

Hope /sarcasm.

[Carlos Danger]

4 minutes ago, DriftBusta said:

Wow I had no idea they were that dirty in the Mass house.

I can't remember a year where the Mass legislature made it out of the month of January without a new indictments. One party rule unchecked for decades = corruption.

[steve from amherst]

Joseph J. C. DiCarlo is an American politician who served in both houses of the Massachusetts General Court. He was expelled from the Senate in 1977 after he was convicted of extortion. He was the first Massachusetts State Senator to be expelled.

Anthony D. Galluccio

Galluccio has been convicted three times of driving-related offenses. In 1984 he was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol, for which he was pardoned by governor William Weld in 1993.^[6] He was convicted of the same offense in 1997.^[6] In October 2009, he was accused of having fled the scene of a car crash. He pleaded guilty to the charge on December 18, 2009, and was sentenced to six months home confinement, with the qualification that he may attend church and cast votes in the State Senate.^[7] Within 72 hours of beginning his house arrest the court-ordered breath-alcohol testing device, the BI Sobrietor, detected alcohol on his breath. Galluccio speculated that due to his house arrest his personal hygiene had increased and consequently blamed his toothpaste.^[8] He was given the maximum sentence of one year in prison.^[9] Galluccio was released from prison on July 15, 2010 and placed on probation.

John George Jr. (born July 31, 1946, in Dartmouth, Massachusetts) is an American businessman, farmer, and Democratic Party politician who represented 9th Bristol District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1989 to 1991.^[1] He resigned six months into his second term due to a conflict of interest issue.^[2] He was found guilty in April 2015 of embezzling federal funds from Union Street Bus Company, a firm that he owned, and using that money to benefit his personal farm in Dartmouth,^[3] and he was sentenced to 70 months in prison and ordered to pay $688,772 in restitution to SRTA, which his company was contracted to. He is being held at the Federal Medical Center, Devens, and his inmate number is 96292-038.

In late December 2015, over 1 million dollars in cash owned by George was found by the United States Marshals Service. The money, located in safe deposit boxes at various locations, was found during raids in New Bedford and Fairhaven, Massachusetts.^[4]

Carlos Tony Henriquez is an American Democratic politician who represented the 5th Suffolk district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives prior to his expulsion from office in 2014.^[1] He was the first house member to be expelled from office since 1916Henriquez was charged with assault and kidnapping of a woman in July 2012 and released after posting $1000 bond. In September, the kidnapping charge was dropped, though the others remained.^[3] On January 14, 2014, Henriquez was convicted of two counts assault and battery charges and sentenced to 2.5 years in jail, with six months to be served in the Middlesex House of Correction and the remaining two years to be spent on probation

 

[steve from amherst]

James A. Kelly Jr. (May 11, 1926 – August 9, 2013) was an American politician who served as a Democrat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1959 to 1965 and the M

In 1980, Worcester architect Frank Masiello testified before the Special Commission Concerning State and County Buildings that his company paid Kelly's accounting firm a $500 monthly retainer after Kelly threatened to have his firm's contracts with the state cancelled. The payments allegedly began in January 1971 when Kelly became chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and ended in September 1976. He also stated that his company paid for Kelly's travel, entertainment, and YMCA memberships. Kelly's firm received a total of $9,500, but never performed any work for Masiello and Associates.^[20] James L. Bauchat of Masiello and Associates' parent company Kassuba Development Corp., testified that Kelly demanded $10,000 in exchange for state design contracts.^[21] Kelly appeared before the Commission on June 27, 1980, pleaded the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer any questions.^[22]

On September 23, 1980, Kelly was indicted on charges of extorting $34,500 from Masiello and Associates. The indictment was based on the Hobbs Act, which makes it illegal for a public official to solicit money from people trying to influence his official conduct.^[23] On September 30 he pleaded not guilty and was released by United States magistrate judge Peter W. Princi on $10,000 bond.^[24] His trial began on March 18, 1981 and ended on April 29. After eleven hours of deliberation, the jury remained deadlocked 11 to 1 for conviction. Judge Joseph L. Tauro declared a mistrial.^[25]

Before the retrial, the prosecution attempted to have Tauro removed from the case, citing his pro-defense rulings during the trial and having received assistance from Kelly when Kelly was chair of a committee investigating the Volpe administration and Tauro was Volpe's chief legal counsel. The United States Court of Appeals ruled that there was no legal basis to bar Tauro from presiding over the retrial. Also prior to the retrial, two of the prosecution's witnesses had committed perjury.^[26][27]

Kelly's retrial began on November 15, 1982, and ended on December 22.^[28][29] The next day, the jury found Kelly guilty of extortion.^[30] On January 20, 1983, Judge Rya W. Zobel sentenced him to two years in prison.^[31] He was allowed to remain out of prison until the outcome of his appeal, which was rejected on December 1, 1983.^[32] Kelly then sought to have his sentence delayed until April 1984 so he could complete his studies for a master's degree in business administration at Florida International University.^[33] The request was denied and Kelly began his sentence in March 1984. He was incarcerated in Federal Prison Camp, Eglin

assachusetts Senate from 1965 to 1979. In 1983, he was convicted of extortion.

Ted Kennedy

On the night of July 18, 1969, Kennedy was at Chappaquiddick Island on the eastern end of Martha's Vineyard. He was hosting a party that he gave for the Boiler Room Girls, a group of young women who had worked on his brother Robert's ill-fated 1968 presidential campaign.^[71] Kennedy left the party with one of the women, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne. Driving a 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88, he attempted to cross the Dike Bridge (which did not have a guardrail at that time). Kennedy lost control of his vehicle and crashed in the Poucha Pond inlet, which was a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island. Kennedy escaped from the overturned vehicle, and, by his description, dove below the surface seven or eight times, vainly attempting to reach and rescue Kopechne. Ultimately, he swam to shore and left the scene, with Kopechne still trapped inside the vehicle. Kennedy did not report the accident to authorities until the next morning, by which time Kopechne's body had already been discovered.^[71]

A week after the incident, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a suspended sentence of two months in jail.^[71] That night, he gave a national broadcast in which he said, "I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately," but he denied driving under the influence of alcohol and also denied any immoral conduct between him and Kopechne.^[71] Kennedy asked the Massachusetts electorate whether he should stay in office or resign; after getting a favorable response in messages sent to him, Kennedy announced on July 30 that he would remain in the Senate and run for re-election the next year.^[76]

In January 1970, an inquest into Kopechne's death was held in Edgartown, Massachusetts.^[71] At the request of Kennedy's lawyers, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered the inquest to be conducted in secret.^[71][77][78] The presiding judge, James A. Boyle, concluded that some aspects of Kennedy's story of that night were not true, and that negligent driving "appears to have contributed" to the death of Kopechne.^[78] A grand jury on Martha's Vineyard conducted a two-day investigation in April 1970 but issued no indictment, after which Boyle made his inquest report public.^[71] Kennedy deemed its conclusions "not justified."^[71] Questions about the Chappaquiddick incident generated a large number of articles and books over the next several years

[Carlos Danger]

I am not sure this site has enough band width to list all of the convictions brought against the Mass legislature over the years. 

[steve from amherst]

Ronald Conrad MacKenzie^[1] is an American attorney and Republican politician who served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1967 to 1977. He resigned following his conviction for extortion, conspiracy, and other related offenses.

On August 13, 1976 a grand jury indicted MacKenzie and fellow Senator Joseph DiCarlo on charges that they extorted $40,000 from a consulting company. According to the indictment, MacKenzie and DiCarlo threatened McKee-Berger-Mansueto, Inc. (MBM), the consulting company supervising construction of the University of Massachusetts Boston campus at Columbia Point, with an unfavorable report from the legislative committee investigating their contract unless they were paid.^[13] MacKenzie and DiCarlo were charged with violating the Hobbs Act, which forbids extortion by public officials, and the Travel Act, which forbids crossing state lines for the purpose of extortion.^[14] On February 25, 1977, they were found guilty of all charges.^[15] MacKenzie was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $5,000.^[16]

Three days after his conviction for extortion, on February 28, MacKenzie resigned as Assistant Minority Floor Leader. However, he refused to resign his Senate seat. The conduct of MacKenzie and DiCarlo was referred to the newly formed Senate Ethics Committee, and on March 31, 1977, the day before the committee was to issue its report, MacKenzie resigned from the Senate

William Q. MacLean Jr.

In 1989, The Boston Globe, reported that after MacLean played a pivotal in the passage of a bill that allowed PEBSCO to sell its investment services to local governments in Massachusetts, he received $1 million in commissions from PEBSCO. In 1990, federal prosecutors convened a grand jury to look into MacLean's dealings with PEBSCO, but due to a lack of witnesses, the case was dropped in 1991.^[6]

On February 2, 1993, a Suffolk County grand jury indicted MacLean on two counts of violating a provision in the state conflict-of-interest law that prohibits state employees from having a financial interest in state contracts. According to prosecutors, MacLean received half the fees former Attorney General Edward J. McCormack Jr. made from developing, constructing, and managing Fairhaven Village, a housing development for elderly and low-income residents that received state funding, through Sky High Realty Trust, a trust whose sole beneficiary was MacLean's wife, Marjorie. McLean was also accused of receiving a portion of the money ($278,090) PEBSCO earned by selling its plan to state employees through hidden payments made through Pilgrim Insurance Agency, which was also owned by McCormack.^[6][8]

On February 5, MacLean pleaded guilty to both charges. He was ordered to pay the state $512,000 and serve one year of probation.^[8] MacLean has sought to plead nolo contendere, however after three judges refused to take a nolo contendere plea, he agreed to plead guilty so that the case would not be further delayed.^[9]

On September 17, 1993, the state retirement stripped MacLean of his $23,000 a year pension. State law allows the board to invalidate the pensions of state workers who are convicted of crimes "applicable" to their jobs.^[10] MacLean appealed the revocation. In 2000, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the revocation of MacLean's pension

[steve from amherst]

Jim Marzilli

On April 8, 2008, Marzilli was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Arlington, Massachusetts. In late April, the case was referred to the District Attorney's Office for further investigation. On May 7, Marzilli wrote an email to his supporters, where he declared his innocence and thanked them for their support, but continued to refuse to discuss any details of the case.^[10][11] On May 14, 2008, Middlesex prosecutors dropped the case for lack of sufficient evidence.^[12]

On June 3, 2008, Marzilli was involved in a second incident of alleged verbally accosting another woman who was sitting on a park bench.^[13] The alleged incident occurred in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts. The Senator made lewd comments and "he tried to touch me".^[14] When Lowell Police arrived, Marzilli gave a false name and later led Police on a foot chase that ended in a nearby parking garage.^[15] After this arrest, other women came forward to claim Marzilli harassed them the same day, alleging ("The sex is sweet, you want it, and you want to go with me." "Oh baby, you are so beautiful – your butt is perfect.") .^[16]Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr later reported that the false name given by Marzilli was Martin Walsh, which is the name of at least three people known by Marzilli, including a state representative from Dorchester, a former employee of the late U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, and a former employee of the U.S. Department of Justice.^[17]

On July 1, the Massachusetts State Senate voted 38–0 to refer the Marzilli’s alleged misconduct to the Committee on Ethics and Rules, which will not release its findings until after his court cases are resolved.^[18]

Throughout the controversy, Marzilli remained in office but did end his reelection campaign in June.^[19] However, in November after a controversial trip to Germany to two environmental conferences, Marzilli resigned his office.^[20] His seat in the state senate remained open until January 2009, when Kenneth Donnelly, who won the November election for the seat was sworn in.^[21]

On June 9, 2010, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Marzilli could be prosecuted for "attempted indecent assault and battery".^[22]

On February 22, 2011, Marzilli pleaded guilty to all charges against him, including resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, in Middlesex Superior Court and was sentenced to three months in prison. Marzilli's defense had requested a sentence of three years probation, whereas the prosecution was seeking one year imprisonment for Marzilli

Nicholas Mavroules

Mavroules was voted out of office in 1992, the year he was indicted on seventeen counts of corruption amid a federal investigation into alleged misuse of his office for private gain. Allegations included extortion, accepting illegal gifts and failing to report them on congressional disclosure and income tax forms.^[1]

Mavroules pleaded guilty to fifteen counts in April 1993 and was sentenced to a fifteen-month prison term.

David J. "Okie" O'Connor was an American funeral director and politician who was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1951 to 1970. He left the House after he was convicted of willful failure to file Federal income tax returns.

Gerald O'Leary

He resigned on October 4, 1980, after being arrested and charged with attempting to extort a $650,000 kickback from a school bus company.^[3] He pleaded guilty to violating the Hobbs Act and was sentenced to eighteen months in prison.^[4]

 

[steve from amherst]

Charles Reardon

Charles H. Reardon (born c. 1942) is a former American penal official who served as sheriff of Essex County, Massachusetts from 1978 to 1996.

Reardon began working in the Essex County penal and court system in 1964.^[2] He also owned a portion of Essex Process Servers, a private process serving business until 1978.^[3] He was appointed sheriff of Essex County by Governor Michael Dukakis on October 4, 1978 following the resignation of Robert Ellis Cahill due to heart problems.^[2] He was elected to a full term in 1980 and reelected in 1986 and 1992.^[4]

In 1994, federal authorities began investigating Reardon for allegedly providing a no-show job to one of his fund-raisers and for failing to return a savings bond to a deceased prisoner's family. In 1995, Reardon's top aide, his director of communications, and the Essex County Jail personnel director were indicted on charges of wiretapping and eavesdropping, another top deputy pled guilty to embezzling $6,400 from the county, and the former county administrator of civil process servers was indicted for lying to a federal grand jury investigating Reardon.^[5][6][7]

On January 18, 1996, Reardon was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy, accepting corrupt payments, misusing public facilities, wiretapping, and obstructing justice. According to the indictment, Reardon solicited bribes from process servers, used the Middleton jail as the base for his campaign's direct-mail operation, directed subordinates to eavesdrop on employees to determine their loyalty to him, and used the state police computer system to gather damaging information on political opponents.^[8][9] Reardon agree to an unpaid suspension on January 23.^[10] On September 17, he resigned and pleaded guilty to accepting gratuities worth $3,600 from Essex Process Servers Inc. The other charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement.^[3] He was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison

Joseph F. Timilty (state senator)

On January 27, 1993, Timilty was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.^[5] On August 31, 1993, he was sentenced to four months in prison and two years of probation

B. Joseph Tully

In 1988, Tully was found guilty of attempted extortion and mail fraud and sentenced to three years in federal prison in a case involving a land swap made with an auto dealership during his tenure as city manager.^[4]

In 2011 he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud after he took $12,000 worth of bribes from a Lowell landlord who was looking for the Registry of Motor Vehicles to renew its leased with him. Tully reached out to the owner and told him that if he paid him he would pay off a state senator and help keep the Registry office open. Tully and a partner pocketed the bribes and did not pay off any public officials

Chuck Turner

On August 3, 2007, Turner was videotaped by FBI informant Ronald Wilburn, accepting $1,000 cash from Wilburn in Turner's district office in exchange for pushing for a liquor license for the Roxbury nightclub Dejavu.^[7] On November 22, 2008, Turner was arrested^[8] and charged with attempted extortion under color of official right.

On December 9, 2008, Turner was indicted by a federal grand jury on three charges of making false statements and a charge of conspiracy with former State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, all stemming from an FBI public corruption investigation. Turner was found guilty of the false statement and bribery charges by a jury on October 29, 2010.^[9]

Turner has made claims that both he and Wilkerson are victims of a government conspiracy against African-American officials.^[10]

On December 1, 2010, Turner was expelled from the Boston City Council by an 11-1 vote making him the first council member to ever be expelled in the history of the modern Boston City Council.^[11]

On January 25, 2011, Turner was sentenced to three years in prison.^[12] He was released early for good behavior in July 2013, after serving 28 months

Dianne Wilkerson

Federal tax evasion[edit]

Wilkerson was sentenced to house arrest in December 1997 after pleading guilty to failing to pay $51,000 in federal income taxes in the early 1990s. She was suspended from practicing law for one year in 1999 because of the conviction and did not seek reinstatement.^[7]

Ethics violations[edit]

Fleet/BankBoston merger[edit]

In 2001, she was fined $1,000 by the State Ethics Commission for failing to properly report that a bank she lobbied for as senator was paying her more than $20,000 a year as a consultant.^[8]

Unreported donations[edit]

In September 2005, the state Attorney General and head of the state's campaign finance office filed a lawsuit against Wilkerson, alleging she had not reported nearly $27,000 in donations and refused to explain more than $18,000 in personal reimbursements. She agreed to pay a $10,000 fine and forego about $30,000 in debts owed her to settle the allegations.^[9]

Perjury complaint[edit]

The state Office of the Bar Counsel filed a complaint on October 3, 2008, accusing Wilkerson of violating the rules of professional conduct by lying under oath at a 2005 court hearing at which her nephew, Jermaine Berry, requested a new trial on a manslaughter conviction.

Wilkerson, who joined the bar in 1981 but has not practiced in a decade, gave "intentionally false, misleading, and deceptive testimony" at the Suffolk Superior Court hearing and in an affidavit, according to the eight-page petition for discipline.

In both the court appearance and the affidavit, the complaint said, Wilkerson falsely claimed that she was present at a Boston police station when two homicide detectives interviewed another nephew, Isaac Wilkerson, about the 1994 stabbing death of Hazel Mack. Berry was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Mack's death, but the senator testified that Isaac Wilkerson made statements that implicated himself during the interview.

Wilkerson also lied when she testified that the detectives repeatedly turned a tape recorder off and on during the interview, the disciplinary complaint said

On October 28, 2008, Wilkerson was arrested by the FBI on public corruption charges. A federal criminal complaint was filed against her that alleges she was caught on tape stuffing a cash bribe into her bra and accepted those cash payments in exchange for her official duties and responsibilities.

Wilkerson was the subject of an 18-month-long undercover investigation conducted by the Boston Police Department and the FBI in which she allegedly accepted eight bribes in cash totaling $23,500. The payments, ranging in amounts from $500 to $10,000 were received from undercover law enforcement officers and a cooperating witness.^[11][12] The bribes were allegedly accepted in return for her help in obtaining a liquor license for a proposed nightclub and transferring public land to a federal agent posing as a private developer.^[13]

On November 17, 2008, Wilkerson filed a motion in federal court requesting a court-appointed lawyer to defend her against the bribery charges. She stated that she could not afford to pay for a lawyer and asked US Magistrate Judge Timothy S. Hillman to appoint Max D. Stern. Stern had been defending Wilkerson in an unrelated matter.^[14]

On November 18, 2008, a federal grand jury indicted Wilkerson on eight counts of accepting bribes.^[15]

On December 8, 2008, Wilkerson appeared before Judge Timothy S. Hillman in the U.S. District Court in Boston to plead not guilty to eight extortion charges. After a federal grand jury added a conspiracy charge against Wilkerson, she had to return to court on December 11 along with co-defendant Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner to again plead not guilty to all charges. She currently is free on bail, and was scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing in US District Court on February 25, 2009.^[16][17][18] On April 7, 2009, a federal grand jury added 23 more counts of corruption against Wilkerson. It was alleged that she had been receiving bribes since 2002. On June 3, 2010 Wilkerson pleaded guilty to eight counts of attempted extortion. As part of her plea agreement, other related charges will be dismissed. She remained free on bail while awaiting sentencing.^[19][20]

On January 6, 2011, Wilkerson was sentenced to 3¹⁄₂ years in prison for briber

[steve from amherst]

Francis H. Woodward

On July 28, 1995, Woodward was indicted on charges of depriving taxpayers of honest services through mail and wire fraud, conspiracy, interstate travel to commit bribery, and lying on State Ethics Commission reports. According to United States Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Chiel, Woodward received illegal gratuities from John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. lobbyist F. William Sawyer from 1986 to 1992 and attempted to conceal it by filing false financial disclosure forms. The gratuities allegedly included free golf trips to Savannah, Georgia, Orlando, Florida, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and Scottsdale, Arizona as well as a trip to Super Bowl XX in New Orleans, Louisiana.^[20][21] Woodward's attorney claimed that Sawyer gave Woodward the gifts out of friendship, not in an attempt to influence him as a legislator.^[2]

Woodward's trial began on September 16, 1996.^[22] October 2, 1996, he was found guilty of five counts of accepting illegal gratuities during his tenure as Chairman of the Insurance Committee, but not guilty of twenty-one counts that occurred between his removal as Chairman and his departure from the House.^[23] On February 7, 1997, Judge Douglas P. Woodlock dismissed one of the five counts and sentenced Woodward to six months in a federal halfway house and fined him $5,000.^[24] In 2002, the Massachusetts Retirement Board voted to revoke Woodward's pension

[Carlos Danger]

Ronald Conrad MacKenzie^[1] is an American attorney and Republican politician who served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1967 to 1977. He resigned following his conviction for extortion,conspiracy, and other related offenses.

This one is my favorite. So in the first sentence we are told his party affiliation (which in Mass is the most important indescresion). Try and find the party affiliation on the rest of these convictions.