The other night, state Rep. Sam Montaño (D-15th Suffolk) hosted a meeting at English High School to talk about how to consider Boston Medical Center's plans to turn Shattuck Hospital into a large recovery center possibly featuring several hundred housing units in addition to a rebuilt hospital building. Read more.
The Dorchester Reporter reports that Wilkerson is considering a run next year now that incumbent Sonia Chang-Diaz, who defeated her in the Democratic primary in 2008, has taken herself out of the race so she can run for governor.
Everybody's favorite Olympic nag today reassures the USOC not to worry about us lying on the floor crying and screaming and slamming our little fists into the hardwood: We'll be back to our adorable selves after a good nap. Read more.
SF Weekly reports the feds used the same fake identity and address for an undercover agent in a San Francisco corruption investigation as for an undercover agent who helped snare our own Dianne Wilkerson back in 2008.
A federal appeals court today said the judge who sentenced Dianne Wilkerson to 42 months behind bars for corruption did nothing wrong.
The Herald reports Dianne Wilkerson sent them a letter from prison. Food's not the best, but otherwise, she's doing quite well, thank you very much.
Should we be concerned she hasn't updated her Web site since June?
CommonWealth takes a look at Ron Wilburn's grand jury testimony (with transcript provided), discovers the Cooperating Witness proved unable to deliver the goods on anybody else involved in liquor-licensing issues in Boston and the feds, so far, have either failed to follow up or decided there just was no there there.
The Dorchester Reporter reports one what could be her last public appearance before she reports to federal prison for her 3 1/2-year sentence.
The Herald talks to the soon-to-be-a-number ex-state Senator, who says she and Chuck Turner were set up and treated more harshly than Tom Finneran and John Tierney's wife. Also vows to return to public service after her 3 1/2-year sentence.
Judge says 3 1/2 years in federal prison is the price for a "Wilkerson tax," the Globe reports.
Ex-Sen. Dianne Wilkerson's lawyers yesterday submitted a brief to a judge considering what to do with her that makes two basic arguments: While she screwed up, her intentions were good, and what she did wasn't all that worse than what Tom Finneran did, and he didn't get any jail time.
The disgraced former senator is such a serial law breaker she deserves to get a longer sentence than normally called for on her current corruption charges, the US Attorney's office in Boston argued today.
Wilkerson pleaded guilty in June in US District Court in Boston to a variety of charges related to her bribe-fueled, bra-stuffing effort to get more liquor licenses for Boston and permits for a proposed development in Roxbury.
As expected, former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges today. She'll be sentenced Sept. 20 in US District Court.
More details from the US Attorney's office.
She pleaded guilty in the early 1990s to income-tax evasion.
The Globe reports. Her plea hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. in Courtroom 1 at the Moakley Federal Courthouse before Judge Douglas Woodlock.
No word on the nature of her plea deal with federal prosecutors, who had her arrested in October, 2008 after her indictment on various charges related to alleged bribery and extortion involving Boston liquor licenses. She later had additional charges piled in, including allegedly conspiring with City Councilor Chuck Turner, who faces his own federal corruption trial.
The nature and number of the charges against Wilkerson would be enough to send her away for life if she were to go for trial and be convicted on all of them.
Turner's trial is scheduled for Oct. 12.
Innocent, etc.
You know the ones (yes, yes, this one and this one, among others). Associated Press reports a federal judge today basically asked federal prosecutors: Was that really necessary? Turner in particular has used the inclusion of the photos in the initial indictments as an argument against an order barring him from publicly discussing evidence in the case against him.
Former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson was today charged with 23 new counts of mail and wire fraud, the US Attorney's office announced.
That brings the number of federal charges against Wilkerson for allegedly taking federal money from "Cooperating Witness" and local businessman Ron Wilborn to 32. The feds say the number of charges against City Councilor Chuck Turner remains set at five. Each faces the potential of spending the rest of their lives in prison if convicted on all the charges.
Adrian Walker scores another interview with Ron Wilborn, the Roxbury businessman who allegedly fed bribes to Dianne Wilkerson and Chuck Turner and who now says he will refuse to cooperate with the feds because he feels he was used to get a pair of black pols (and that he thinks Wilkerson's a crook but that Turner was just unlucky). He tells Walker he's angry no white politicians named in the indictments (and you may recall how prominently Boston Licensing Board Chairman Daniel Pokaski figured in the Wilkerson complaint) have been charged.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney's office says it has evidence against Wilkerson it's yet to produce publicly. The claim comes in a written answer the office filed in reply to Turner's effort to quash the government's effort to keep him from publicly discussing "discovery" evidence turned over to his attorneys:
[T]he discovery material contains a substantial amount of inculpatory evidence against Ms. Wilkerson which has not been the subject of prior pleadings, the selective release of which could inhibit her right to a fair trial.
A federal district court judge will hear arguments on whether to block Turner from speaking about this evidence on Feb. 25; Turner holds a pre-hearing rally at 6:30 p.m. on the 24th at Roxbury Community College.
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