Judge: Eight is enough for ex-Speaker
Sal DiMasi
Boston Herald
By Richard Weir Saturday, September 10, 2011
The eight-year prison sentence slapped on disgraced ex-House Speaker
Salvatore F. DiMasi delivered a strong message to
Beacon Hill pols that public corruption will be met
with a heavy penalty, legal experts said yesterday.
“It’s a stiff sentence. There’s no doubt. You have
someone who has never done jail time before,” said Randy Chapman, a former
prosecutor and past president of Massachusetts
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “I would describe it as on the high
end of reasonableness . . . but (the court) wants people to know that public
corruption is not going to be tolerated and it will be dealt with harshly.”
Carmen M. Ortiz, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, said
outside federal court in Boston that she found it amazing that a number of
politicians wrote U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf letters
portraying DiMasi as a victim to business interests,
suggesting a “tolerance” of public corruption.
“You heard what Judge Wolf said inside, that somehow it’s
striking that elected officials think their good works (make the case) that a
little corruption is OK. It’s not OK,” she said. “I am hoping by these
prosecutions, the sentences that have been given out, that all elected
officials — not just on Beacon Hill, but in the state of Massachusetts — will
realize that these are serious crimes.”
DiMasi hugged his tearful wife and stepdaughter after his sentencing but declined
to speak to reporters as he left the courthouse. He is expected to report Nov.
16 to begin serving his sentence. Wolf said based on DiMasi’s
health problems, he would recommend to prison officials that he be sent to a
minimum-security medical center in Devens.
He also must repay the $65,000 in bribes he was convicted of pocketing.
“A chapter is closed. We are happy to be past it. The
next chapter in this judicial proceeding will be in 1st Circuit Court,” was all
DiMasi’s lawyer, Tom Kiley,
would say to reporters after the sentencing, alluding to his client’s appeal of
his conviction.
DiMasi’s unrepentant remarks in a press conference on the courthouse steps after
his June conviction angered Wolf, and the judge said it played a role in his
sentence, which he called “sufficient but not more than necessary.”
Wolf sentenced DiMasi’s friend
and co-defendant, lobbyist Richard McDonough, to seven years.
DiMasi and McDonough, both 66, were convicted by a federal jury in June of
conspiracy and fraud charges for helping steer two inflated state contracts
totaling $17.5 million to Cognos, a Canadian software
company, in exchange for bribes, including $65,000 in kickbacks given to DiMasi that Wolf said was deliberately structured in small
payments to “mask” their intent
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1364700&srvc=rss