A lawyer for James “Whitey” Bulger urged a judge Wednesday to order prosecutors to identify a confidential informant who asserted that two of the gangster’s former associates boasted that they would protect their criminal friends while cooperating with the government against Bulger.
Henry Brennan argued that the defense should be able to question the informant who told FBI agents that after Kevin Weeks and John Martorano struck deals with the government for leniency for their own crimes, the pair assured some of their underworld colleagues that they would not implicate them in any wrongdoing.
In fact, Martorano, who served 12 years for killing 20 people, negotiated a plea deal in 1999 that requires him to testify against Bulger and corrupt law enforcement officials, but not against two well-known criminal associates: former Winter Hill Gang leader Howard T. Winter and former Bulger associate Patrick Nee.
Brennan said the allegations that the government’s key witnesses are protecting their friends were eerily reminiscent of a high-profile Boston case in which Joseph “The Animal” Barboza, a hitman turned government witness, framed four men for a 1965 gangland slaying, while protecting a friend who was involved.
“In this case, just like the way the government handled Barboza, there is information that exists that witnesses did not want to participate or include their friends in their testimony,” Brennan told reporters after Wednesday’s hearing in federal court in Boston. “And so we want to talk to people. We want to find out the truth.”
In court, Brennan accused Weeks of lying to protect an unidentified friend involved in murder.
During the hearing, Assistant US Attorney Brian T. Kelly said the defense was referring to Nee, who has not been charged with any murders. Kelly said that there was no evidence to charge Nee with a federal crime related to any slayings and that prosecutors do not plan to call him as a witness at Bulger’s upcoming trial.
Kelly argued that the confidential informant’s identity should be protected because the informant reported hearing “street talk’’ that Weeks and Martorano vowed to protect their friends, but had no first-hand information.
US District Judge Denise J. Casper took the matter under advisement.
Bulger, 83, who is being held at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, made a rare court appearance, sitting quietly during the hearing. He is charged in a sweeping federal racketeering indictment with participating in 19 murders. Jury selection is scheduled to begin June 4.
Tom Donahue, whose father was allegedly gunned down by Bulger and an unidentified accomplice in 1982 while giving a ride home to the intended target, said he hopes the trial will resolve unanswered questions.
“These guys and their sweet deal that they got were able to pick and choose who they can rat on, you know, which is pretty disgusting to me,” Donahue said. “. . . Only the trial will bring the truth out.”
Not necessarily.
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Related: Judge Casper's Cover Up
Prayer$ might not help:
"Director accused of stealing from church funds" by Akilah Johnson | Globe Staff, May 22, 2013
The director of operations for an obscure but wealthy Beacon Hill church stood before a federal judge Wednesday, accused of raiding the coffers of the congregation where he said he found redemption and enlightenment.
Federal agents arrested Edward J. MacKenzie, a 54-year-old self-proclaimed henchman for mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, after he was indicted by a grand jury on charges of racketeering, extortion, bribery, and money laundering.
MacKenzie, who lives in Weymouth, started working at the Swedenborgian Church on the Hill in 2003 and immediately began scheming with coconspirators, according to his indictment. Their alleged goal was to “obtain power and influence” and use both to “defraud the church of its considerable financial holdings and profit.”
In other words, they behaved like bankers.
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The church’s attorney, Nick Carter, would not say whether MacKenzie had been suspended with or without pay. He received $200,000 a year as director of operations, although the indictment said he harvested nearly half-a-million dollars in kickbacks and stolen cash during his tenure.
The indictment said that MacKenzie used his position to “loot the church . . . through a combination of fraud, deceit, extortion, theft, and bribery.” Companies hoping to do business had to pay a kickback, often 10 percent, authorities said.
Carpenters, plumbers, painters, and floorers inflated their bids to cover the cost of kickbacks, To ensure that people paid, the indictment said, MacKenzie would intimidate them by providing signed copies of his 2003 autobiography, “Street Soldier: My life as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob.”
A convicted drug dealer with seven children by four women, MacKenzie did not hide his past from fellow parishioners.
In the church’s June 2012 newsletter, he mentions his past while discussing the recent trials and tribulations of the church. “I believe that salvation and redemption come to different people in different ways,” he wrote. “But I know that the support and understanding and enlightenment I have found in this faith, among you, in this house, feel good and right and full of promise.”
The Boston Society of the New Jerusalem runs the Swedenborgian Church, a small Protestant sect that follows the teachings of the 18th-century Swedish scientist and philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg.
Swedenborg believed that Christ has made a second coming, in spirit rather than in person. One of the tenets of the church is that believers, not God, decide their own afterlife....
No offense, but I'm more concerned about the here and now.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Bulger defense seeks limits on family testimony" by Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff, May 24, 2013
Lawyers for James “Whitey” Bulger have asked a federal judge to limit the testimony of the family members of Bulger’s alleged murder victims at his upcoming trial, saying the testimony could be “unduly prejudicial” and “would serve only to provoke an emotional response among the jury.”
That's understandable.
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According to court filings Thursday, Bulger’s former associates John Martorano, Kevin Weeks, and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi will be the key witnesses among a list of more than 70 who are set to testify against Bulger, in perhaps the highest-profile mob trial in recent times....
Also in court records Thursday, prosecutors asked that Casper order Bulger’s lawyers to stop engaging in “media grandstanding” and spreading “false facts” in press briefings....
Yeah, government doesn't like competition or the other side of the story getting out.
Prosecutors argued, “Defense counsel will undoubtedly keep attempting to use post-hearing press conferences to make bald assertions of false facts and to advance ever-changing defense theories.”
I'm not going to say anything other than you have been getting more than a months worth from Boston, and a lot more behind and beyond that. It's really a pitiful government and a pitiful ma$$ media these days.
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Bulger’s lawyers responded to the request last night by quoting Thomas Jefferson, saying: “When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
I'm not going to dispute the greatest founder of all.
“At every turn, the power of the federal government is used to bully, pressure and intimidate the citizenry,” the lawyers said, noting recent controversy over the government’s surveillance of journalists and the IRS targeting political groups....
They are right on that count.
Bulger’s lawyers have argued in court hearings that Bulger has been convicted in books written about him....
Uh-oh. That's you, Globe.
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