Posted on 11/20/2008 3:16:31 AM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, facing open scorn from her colleagues and the possibility of a humiliating vote to strip her of her seat, resigned yesterday from the office she held for nearly 16 years, leaving behind a career punctuated by last month's arrest on federal bribery charges.
Wilkerson submitted a two-sentence letter of resignation to the Senate president, handwritten in cursive on a blank sheet of paper, at 9:45 a.m.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
That's racist!
Wouldn’t have happened in Detroit.
She was wondering; now that she has resigned, can she keep the money?
Dianne Wilkerson..... I met with her (lobbying) a few times circa 1994 and she was very nice. Very lovely back then and not in the least bit racist. It’s dismaying to see her fall.
She looks ugly in that photo but she was babe-a-licious back then
Why am I left with images of invisible ink and being able to walk through solid objects?
..she should have checked in with Charlie Rangel
It's not gauranteed to happen? Oh yeah, this is a democrat were talking about.
Excuse me, the story does not state if she is a republican or a democrat...my guess is republican because we ALL KNOW that the media tells us that “the culture of corruption” is a republican thing.
Oops it’s Democratic State Senator Dianne Wilkerson Got to love that media. LOL
[edit] Legal troubles
[edit] Federal tax evasion
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.[6]
[edit] Ethics violations
[edit] Fleet/BankBoston merger
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.[7]
[edit] Unreported donations
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.[8]
[edit] Perjury complaint
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 a sworn 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.[9]
[edit] Public corruption allegations
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. She is currently free on a $50,000 non-surety bond after having appeared in U.S. District Court.
Wilkerson has been 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.[10][11] 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.[12] If convicted, she may face up to 20 years in prison plus possible fines of $250,000 for each of the two criminal counts.[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]
Wilkerson is currently free pending a probable cause hearing scheduled for December 8, 2008.
“The Devil made me do it”!
LLS
She, and the previous holders of the Massachusetts Senate, representing the 2nd Suffolk District have been convicted of felonies. It’s the New Orleans type district of Boston Her fellow Massachusetts Democrats are very, very disappointed that she got......caught. By the way, this shows you the low mental caliber, and rank corruption that is typical of Mass State House politicians. They are not smart, not well educated, petty small time venal (but constant). And, yet, Mitt couldn’t get anything past them. He was too nice, too clueless, too soft. It could of been shooting fish in a barrel, but he didn’t want to rock the boat.
LOL!! That is the post of the day!
You want to talk unemployment, what about all the poor investigative reporters that are out of a job now? Will we see ANYBODY pursue the upcoming corruption in the Obama administration?
Note to self: File under "Alternate uses for a D-cup."
Wilkerson making deposits in her own private First National Cleavage and Trust... William "Cold Cash" Jefferson, lovingly tucking his filthy lucre into the freezer, nestled next to the cold cuts.
Back in my day, we used banks. ;)
Times change. The financial system is under stress these days.
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