Nov 16, 2005 7:31 am US/Eastern
Former FBI Agent Connolly Won't Get New Trial
BOSTON (CBS4) ―
A federal judge has rejected John Connolly's request for a new trial.
The former FBI agent is serving a 10-year sentence on racketeering charges based on his ties with fugitive mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger.
U.S. District Judge Joseph L. Tauro rejected Connolly's claims that prosecutors withheld evidence and encouraged one of its star witnesses to commit perjury in order to convict him.
Connolly's corrupt relationship with criminal informants Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi during his career in the Boston FBI office led to his 2002 conviction.
E. Peter Mullane, who is one of Connolly's attorneys, said he was "shocked" that Tauro didn't file a written opinion with his decision Tuesday. He pledged to appeal the ruling to the US Court of Appeals.
Connolly is 65 years old. He has nearly 7 years remaining on a 10-year prison sentence. His lawyers claimed former New England mob boss Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme confided to another gangster-turned-informant that he fabricated a story about paying bribes to Connolly.
Connolly's lawyers also claimed that another key government witness, Kevin Weeks, lied when he said Connolly tipped him off to impending indictments of Salemme, Bulger and Flemmi in 1995.
The warning prompted both Salemme and Bulger to flee. Salemme was captured after seven months on the run, while Bulger remains a fugitive.
Salemme also testified that he paid Connolly twice in 1993 with envelopes stuffed with $5,000 in cash.
But Roger Vella, a Philadelphia mob associate who served time with Salemme in a prison unit for government informants, claims Salemme told him he was coerced into testifying against Connolly by prosecutors who told him he would "die in prison" if he refused.
Salemme pleaded guilty to reduced charges in exchange for his testimony against Connolly. Salemme was released from prison in 2003, but arrested again last November, charged with lying to prosecutors during plea negotiations in 1999, when he denied knowing anything about the 1993 death of Boston nightclub manager Stephen DiSarro.
Connolly, who retired from the FBI in 1990, is currently jailed in Florida facing state murder charges in connection with the 1982 slaying of Miami gambling executive John Callahan.
(© 2005 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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