Be prepared ladies and gents. It is expected that next week four current and former state legislators will be indicted by the feds for trading jobs with the Probation Department for political influence. There should be one or two counts for actual bribery or something close to it. I can’t wait to read the indictments.
It will be a sad day when the names are reported. Some will deserve the indictments while others may be prosecutorial pawns being exploited for headlines.
It will also be interesting to see who they get/got to flip.
I don’t think I have the energy in me to keep a close eye on this case and dissect its intricacies. The emotional drain is too much. I’m sure one or two of the indicted solons will be an over reaching by the government. You can rest assured.
There will be legit indictments but the feds don’t play fair and i’m anxious to see what lives they unnecessarily ruin by lumping good people in with some bad.
But anyway, get ready to have your socks blown off. Two current senators, a former rep. and leadership member, and a current rep. are all nervous about the feds busting down there door early Monday morning and hauling them away dressed in their skivies.
Discuss
18 Comments . Leave a comment below.It’s about time that somebody on Beacon Hill lose some sleep about the pervasive corruption that has permeated Massachusetts government for decades. My only regret is that it is federal prosecutors — in a perfect world, a Massachusetts AG would have done this a very long time ago. Are we to believe that nobody knew this was going down until the Globe’s piece? Yeah, right.
The corrupt network of lobbyists, attorneys, doctors, and who knows who else that sustains the outrageous and ongoing abuses of pensions, vacations, sick days, disability payments, etc., etc., etc. seems to continue unscathed.
When we won’t or can’t clean up our own mess, then sooner or later the feds will intervene. Don’t like the results of federal intervention? Then push for much more aggressive local enforcement.
Are you paying attention, Ms. Coakley?
(I gather we’re not throwing out names).
n/t
The Globe reported on contributions from Probation Dept employees to candidates recently: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/specials/spotlight/probation_list/
Besides the two Speakers (DeLeo and DiMasi), the top 3 recipients were:
Rep. Thomas M. Petrolati
Senator Stephen J. Buoniconti
Senator Mark C.W. Montigny
I’ll take an educated guess that those are the two Senators and one current Rep that Ernie predicts will be indicted.
For the former Rep? I’ll guess either DiMasi himself or Rep. Pedone (19 years is a long time to “serve” and already indicted Chrostopher Hoffman was chief probation officer in *western* Massachusetts).
If you do not know what you are talking about, it’s probably not a good idea to throw around names and take the chance of smearing an innocent person…as you have done in your post. Rumor mongering is not a good thing.
I may indeed be wrong. You know I’m wrong, for sure?
But my post was a complete guess. As implied by the question mark in the title of my post, both places where I explicitly state that these are merely “guesses,” and the fact that nowhere in my post do I even remotely suggest that I do know what I’m talking about. I don’t and I also do not imply that my guesses are based on any “inside” information, as your response suggests you have.
I have in no way way “smeared” innocent people in speculating about pending indictments. I threw out a couple of names in the interest of sparking a conversation but I also gave the exact reasons why I was *guessing* it might be those four. If I was “rumor mongering,” then so was the Globe in publishing a story (which I cited) about campaign contributions from probation employees.
In other words. You are wrong. So there.
when you “guess” and “throw out names” regarding who may be indicted by the federal government, you are indeed casting a negative shadow on the individuals you “guess” might be named. That’s how rumors get started and that’s how they get spread…that is exactly what you did. Why not wait until the federal authorities make their announcement and avoid spreading rumor about people who are not even involved.
And, as I said, in the interest of sparking a conversation (an “(1) : oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas”).
It’s my sentiment that “following the money” can often be an interesting and informative exercise. My observation that the original post by Ernie (who often does seem to have inside information) stated flat-out (not a “guess”) that 2 Senators, 1 Rep and 1 former Reps were to be indicted. My opinion that Ernie probably knows this for sure and that it might be possible to guess who those people are (we’ll see soon if I am right or wrong, I would guess). And my idea that there is nothing inherently wrong with speculating as long as one is clear about one’s own knowledge/sources and the fact that one is speculating.
There’s a fine line between “rumor mongering” and conversation, I guess, but I don’t think I crossed that line in this instance.
I ask again, do you know I’m wrong?
I’m sure eb3 could have speculated with actual names attached to his numbers…but, unlike you, he did not choose to…speculating for conversational amusement is nothing more than ugly gossip that chances defaming an innocent person who did not deserve it.
Buoniconti is no longer a state senator. He ran for the Hampden County DA job 18 months ago, and lost.
So, best I can do is 3 for 4. We’ll see…
sinecure that was exposed by the Mastroianni campaign. Buoniconti was making over $100,000 a year as an attorney for the Hampden County Retirement Board.
I have no idea about his involvement with the probations department.
Buoniconti received a lot of contributions from probation employees and defended the strange protection the department had while the overall budget was getting slashed. I found out about this when I looked into Springfield Council President Jimmy Ferrera’s job at the probation department. The Boston Globe first made the Ferrera connection, but only as one of dozens of probation employees.
another WMass local. Like your blog.
A source I checked with confirmed Ernie’s post. It’s been on the radar for weeks.
Sorry to be so late w/ the thank you.
in Hampden County, when the citizens had the sense to elect Mastrioanni and send hacking Buoniconti packing. The whole thing stinks and it is about time some action were taken. I agree whole heartedly with somervilletom, that action should have been taken sooner as everyone and their nephew knew about the probation political scamming for decades. The AG is milquetoast.
about this stuff? Isn’t anybody paying attention otherwise?
I can’t hear you.”
-Martha Coakley, MA legislative delegation, Sheriffs, Judicial branch, law enforcement, Probation Dept. employees, all the unions and people benefiting from the patronage.
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