Wilkerson hit with another allegation

By Jonathan Saltzman Globe Staff / November 20, 2010

With the help of two influential businessmen, one the developer of a major project in her district, former state senator Dianne Wilkerson received a no-show job at a local college that paid $15,000, federal prosecutors say.

The new allegation, which was immediately denied by Wilkerson’s lawyer, was presented yesterday in a sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors. The government recommended that Wilkerson be sentenced next month to four years in prison for taking $23,500 in bribes in the FBI sting that led to her arrest in 2008. She pleaded guilty in June to eight counts of attempted extortion.

The proposed sentence is two months longer than federal probation officials recommended but is warranted because of Wilkerson’s history of ethical lapses and illegal conduct, including a 1997 conviction for tax evasion, according to the office of US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz.

“As outlined below, between Wilkerson’s conviction in 1997 and her plea in this case, Wilkerson repeatedly demonstrated that she believed that she was above the law,’’ said the 17-page memorandum.

But Wilkerson’s lawyer, Max D. Stern of Boston, recommended that his client be sentenced to substantially less than the three years and two months suggested as a minimum period of incarceration in federal sentencing guidelines.

Stern, who said he will be more specific at Wilkerson’s sentencing, said she exercised “extraordinarily poor judgment’’ by taking the bribes, but never sought to enrich herself. He cited her years of public service and commitment to the poor and oppressed. He also denied that Wilkerson received a no-show job at Curry College.

“It was real,’’ he wrote. Wilkerson planned to moderate a lecture series on politics and the law, he wrote, but the college eliminated the position after she became a “public relations liability.’’ Wilkerson became a liability following a suit against her by the state attorney general’s office for alleged campaign finance violations, according to Stern.

The government’s sentencing memorandum details a long history of misconduct and financial problems for Wilkerson, many of them previously reported. But in a new allegation, prosecutors say entrepreneurs with business in Wilkerson’s district and with state government helped her in 2005 to engage in “another set of unethical and ultimately unlawful financial transactions.’’

Through the efforts of the men, identified only as A.W. and J.K., “Wilkerson obtained a no-show job at a local college,’’ said the memorandum.

The men urged the college to give Wilkerson a $15,000 contract because she outspent what she earned each year by $60,000, according to prosecutors.

Although the memorandum did not identify the men or the college, a spokesman for Arthur Winn, founder of WinnCompanies, who retired as chief executive in 2009, yesterday said the developer “facilitated an interview for a job’’ at Curry College.

“Beyond that,’’ said the spokesman, Alan Eisner, “Mr. Winn had no involvement and received nothing in return.’’

At the time Winn helped Wilkerson, she had become the legislative champion of one of his major Boston development projects, the failed $800 million Columbus Center venture.

The man identified by prosecutors as J.K. is John W. Keith, chief executive officer of Keith Companies and a trustee of Curry College. He confirmed in a brief interview that he testified before a grand jury that he helped Wilkerson obtain a position at Curry.

Keith’s lawyer, George C. McMahon of Quincy, said yesterday that the teaching position dealt with government affairs and paid $25,000, but he vigorously denied that it was intended to be a no-show job. “She showed up for a couple of lectures, but after that she didn’t show up and she was fired,’’ he said.

The allegation is not the first time Winn’s name has come up in the Wilkerson scandal. Winn acknowledged last year that he gave $10,000 to Wilkerson in 2004 to help her pay tax debts but said it had nothing to do with wanting assistance in securing public funds for Columbus Center. In September, Martin Raffol, a former top executive of the residential arm of WinnCompanies, pleaded guilty to illegally funneling $12,000 in campaign contributions to four Massachusetts congressmen in a federal case that was an offshoot of the Wilkerson corruption investigation.

Wilkerson is to be sentenced the week of Dec. 6. Her codefendant, Boston city councilor Chuck Turner, is to be sentenced Jan. 25 on one count of attempted extortion and three counts of lying to FBI agents in connection with his conviction in October for taking a $1,000 bribe.

Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.