Ex-Mass. House speaker pleads guilty
BOSTON - Former state House Speaker Thomas Finneran, once considered the most powerful man on Beacon Hill, pleaded guilty Friday to obstruction of justice in a deal that spares him prison time for misrepresenting his role in a redistricting plan that diluted the clout of minority voters.
Hmm, diluting the clout of minorities. Why isn't this a national story?
Federal prosecutors agreed to drop three perjury charges against Finneran in exchange for his guilty plea to a single count of obstruction of justice.
Under the deal, Finneran will pay a $25,000 fine and be placed on 18 months of unsupervised probation, according to the documents filed in U.S. District Court in Boston. He has also agreed not to seek political office for at least five years.
My, how he's going to suffer. It's worse than the harsh punishment meted out to Sandy Berger, last seen yukking it up with Queen Pelosi last night. Braver men could not continue on. Still though, why so lenient a sentence?
U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns still must approve the deal.
Separately, Finneran still faces a possible suspension of his law license or disbarment by the state Board of Bar Overseers.
Finneran was indicted in June 2005 and accused of lying during his testimony in a voting rights lawsuit. The suit claimed that a 2001 law that redrew legislative district boundaries discriminated against minority voters in Boston in Boston while protecting incumbents, including Finneran.
Finneran's trial had been scheduled to begin Jan. 16.
Since leaving the Legislature, Finneran has been president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, where he earns a salary of about $416,000 plus bonuses.
Wow, he's really cashed in on his high office. Still something sticks in my craw here and it's not even mentioned in the story.
He's a Democrat. Laws just don't apply to them. There is a painfully obvious double standard at work. Just imagine for a second that a Republican colluded to deny voting rights of minorities, got less than a wristslap for it while continuing to draw an enormous salary and basically walked away scot-free.
Do you think this story would merit a bit more attention if he were a Republican and that perhaps it might even be mentioned? Do I even need to ask the question?
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