Nov 21, 2008 6:05 pm US/Eastern
Chuck Turner, Dianne Wilkerson, What's Next?
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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Chuck Turner and Dianne Wilkerson
WBZ
Boston city councilor Chuck Turner is the second city politician to be
arrested by the FBI in the last month on bribery charges.
WIDER PROBE? The investigation into corruption at City Hall and the State House has led to a second arrest.
Former state senator
Dianne Wilkerson was arrested Oct. 28 and indicted Tuesday on allegations she accepted $23,500 in bribes for arranging a liquor license and land transfer.
Turner, a staunch supporter of Wilkerson, is now charged with accepting $1,000 from the same confidential informant who said he paid bribes to Wilkerson.
Read The Turner Criminal ComplaintTurner denied the payment when confronted by FBI agents on the day Wilkerson was arrested.
ARE OTHERS INVOLVED? According to the criminal complaint released Friday, Turner told the FBI agents after Wilkerson's arrest that corruption was pervasive among politicians.
"If you took out all corrupt politicians, you'd take out 90 percent and be left with us 10 percent," he said.
In the FBI affidavit in the Wilkerson case, undercover agents are described as asking a Wilkerson associate
"whether anyone needed to be paid to earn their support." See page 27 of the Wilkerson complaintThe associate said
Wilkerson deserved "the biggest chunk," but that
Wilkerson's House representative deserved $5,000 and other
"small timers" she "orchestrates"
-- including a second House member and a Boston city councilor -- should be paid $1,000.
None of the individuals was named, and the Wilkerson affidavit did not say if the money was ever paid.
Turner is Wilkerson's city councilor.
Wilkerson is represented in the House by
Rep. Byron Rushing, a Boston Democrat who also received a subpoena.
There are no allegations of any wrongdoing against Rushing.
WILKERSON AND TURNER Turner is a fellow African-American who is a Harvard-educated member of the Green-Rainbow Party. He also is a veteran community activist who has been on the City Council since 2000.
He complained about the FBI in the aftermath of Wilkerson's arrest.
Last week, he told the
Jamaica Plain Gazette that an undercover FBI agent came to his office last year wearing a hidden video camera as part of the bureau's investigation of Wilkerson.
OTHERS SUBPOENAED, BUT NOT IMPLICATED The FBI affidavit filed in connection with Wilkerson's case refers to Mayor Thomas Menino, City Council President Maureen Feeney, Senate President Therese Murray and
other city and state officials -- most of whom have acknowledged receiving subpoenas in the case.
Menino, Feeney and Murray have denied any wrongdoing.
U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said Friday that Menino, other members of the Legislature and the governor's office were not targets of the ongoing probe.
He refused to expand beyond that when asked about City Hall employees or the city's Licensing Board, which includes gubernatorial appointees.
"This always casts a cloud over governments," Menino told reporters. "It's frustrating for me. It's very frustrating for me. We are supposed to be here to help people."
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting 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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