JustRalph
10-29-2008, 02:18 PM
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/10/wilkersons_camp_1.html
Excerpt from the article:
Wilkerson, the lone African-American in the state Senate, was taken into custody at her Roxbury home Tuesday morning by federal agents. She was released after a brief appearance in US District Court late in the afternoon, disappearing into a black sport utility vehicle without responding to questions.
Left behind, though, were indelible images of Wilkerson allegedly accepting cash envelopes and vowing to work with "laser-focused" energy to manipulate powerful figures and the state's political process. A 32-page FBI affidavit laid out in painful detail allegations that Wilkerson took bribes, beginning with $500 over lunch at a Beacon Hill pub packed with political figures to $10,000 secreted inside a leather day planner at a take-out restaurant in her district some 16 months later.
The document reads like a dime-store political thriller: A meeting at posh No. 9 Park, where Wilkerson allegedly tucked 10 $100 bills into her bra; a two-day gambling spree at Foxwoods casino after allegedly accepting a $1,000 kickback at the Fill-A-Buster, a jam-packed shoebox cafe across the street from the State House.
At one point, she allegedly laughed after an undercover agent posing as a developer handed her $10,000 and said, "That's a lot of money." She boasted that she was "arm-twisting" and "knee-cracking" city and state officials.
"I pushed this envelope farther than it's ever been pushed before," Wilkerson, a Democrat, allegedly said in a recorded telephone call with an FBI agent posing as a real-estate developer.
The alleged bribes, recorded by a witness cooperating with the FBI and undercover agents posing as businessmen, carry potential penalties of up to 40 years in prison and $250,000 in fines and seem likely to deal a death blow to Wilkerson's political career.
But they also opened a window onto an ugly side of city and state politics, one in which leaders such as Senate President Therese Murray, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and the chairman of the state-appointed Boston Licensing Board, Daniel F. Pokaski, seemed willing to engage in back-room dealing. According to the affidavit, Wilkerson described the public process for issuing liquor licenses in Boston as merely "smoke and mirrors."
"The latest charges brought against Senator Wilkerson rise to a whole new level and significantly tarnish the reputation not only of the Massachusetts Senate, but government as a whole," Senate minority leader Richard R. Tisei said in a statement.
Wilkerson's reelection campaign appeared to have come to a halt yesterday. Her Roxbury campaign office was closed. She spent the day in the custody of federal officials, then was escorted by marshals into a packed US District Court in Boston shortly after 3 p.m.
The courtroom fell silent as Wilkerson strode in and seated herself before Judge Magistrate Timothy Hillman.
She watched stoically as prosecutors said that Wilkerson had $6,000 in cash on her when she was taken into custody and that federal prosecutors will be scouring all of her financial records with an eye toward possible tax evasion prosecution.
Twenty-five minutes later, Hillman released the senator, setting the next court appearance for Nov. 17 and ordering her to avoid contact with witnesses in the case and to post a $50,000 unsecured bond. Wilkerson left through a rear door with a small entourage led by her son, Cornell Mills, pushing cameras away as they walked. They climbed into a black Lincoln Navigator with New York plates and sped off.
"As every defendant, Senator Dianne Wilkerson is entitled to the presumption of innocence," her lawyer, Max D. Stern, said. "There is a context to every one of the interactions you have been told about. There is something that happens before. There is something that happens after that has not been included in what you've been shown. You will learn that when there is a trial."
Wilkerson's arrest sent shock waves through the State House and City Hall and through her district, where she has long been a beloved, if controversial, figure. She had been reelected time and again, despite a 1997 guilty plea for failure to file tax returns, a 1998 probation violation that sent her to a halfway house for 30 days, and a 1998 finding that she had violated campaign finance laws dating back to her first Senate contest in 1992.
Republicans called on her to resign, while Democrats, including Governor Deval Patrick, who had backed her in the September primary, were more cautious.
Excerpt from the article:
Wilkerson, the lone African-American in the state Senate, was taken into custody at her Roxbury home Tuesday morning by federal agents. She was released after a brief appearance in US District Court late in the afternoon, disappearing into a black sport utility vehicle without responding to questions.
Left behind, though, were indelible images of Wilkerson allegedly accepting cash envelopes and vowing to work with "laser-focused" energy to manipulate powerful figures and the state's political process. A 32-page FBI affidavit laid out in painful detail allegations that Wilkerson took bribes, beginning with $500 over lunch at a Beacon Hill pub packed with political figures to $10,000 secreted inside a leather day planner at a take-out restaurant in her district some 16 months later.
The document reads like a dime-store political thriller: A meeting at posh No. 9 Park, where Wilkerson allegedly tucked 10 $100 bills into her bra; a two-day gambling spree at Foxwoods casino after allegedly accepting a $1,000 kickback at the Fill-A-Buster, a jam-packed shoebox cafe across the street from the State House.
At one point, she allegedly laughed after an undercover agent posing as a developer handed her $10,000 and said, "That's a lot of money." She boasted that she was "arm-twisting" and "knee-cracking" city and state officials.
"I pushed this envelope farther than it's ever been pushed before," Wilkerson, a Democrat, allegedly said in a recorded telephone call with an FBI agent posing as a real-estate developer.
The alleged bribes, recorded by a witness cooperating with the FBI and undercover agents posing as businessmen, carry potential penalties of up to 40 years in prison and $250,000 in fines and seem likely to deal a death blow to Wilkerson's political career.
But they also opened a window onto an ugly side of city and state politics, one in which leaders such as Senate President Therese Murray, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and the chairman of the state-appointed Boston Licensing Board, Daniel F. Pokaski, seemed willing to engage in back-room dealing. According to the affidavit, Wilkerson described the public process for issuing liquor licenses in Boston as merely "smoke and mirrors."
"The latest charges brought against Senator Wilkerson rise to a whole new level and significantly tarnish the reputation not only of the Massachusetts Senate, but government as a whole," Senate minority leader Richard R. Tisei said in a statement.
Wilkerson's reelection campaign appeared to have come to a halt yesterday. Her Roxbury campaign office was closed. She spent the day in the custody of federal officials, then was escorted by marshals into a packed US District Court in Boston shortly after 3 p.m.
The courtroom fell silent as Wilkerson strode in and seated herself before Judge Magistrate Timothy Hillman.
She watched stoically as prosecutors said that Wilkerson had $6,000 in cash on her when she was taken into custody and that federal prosecutors will be scouring all of her financial records with an eye toward possible tax evasion prosecution.
Twenty-five minutes later, Hillman released the senator, setting the next court appearance for Nov. 17 and ordering her to avoid contact with witnesses in the case and to post a $50,000 unsecured bond. Wilkerson left through a rear door with a small entourage led by her son, Cornell Mills, pushing cameras away as they walked. They climbed into a black Lincoln Navigator with New York plates and sped off.
"As every defendant, Senator Dianne Wilkerson is entitled to the presumption of innocence," her lawyer, Max D. Stern, said. "There is a context to every one of the interactions you have been told about. There is something that happens before. There is something that happens after that has not been included in what you've been shown. You will learn that when there is a trial."
Wilkerson's arrest sent shock waves through the State House and City Hall and through her district, where she has long been a beloved, if controversial, figure. She had been reelected time and again, despite a 1997 guilty plea for failure to file tax returns, a 1998 probation violation that sent her to a halfway house for 30 days, and a 1998 finding that she had violated campaign finance laws dating back to her first Senate contest in 1992.
Republicans called on her to resign, while Democrats, including Governor Deval Patrick, who had backed her in the September primary, were more cautious.