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Posted on 06/08/2002 12:46:56 AM PDT by ninonitti
Their millionaire father was executed at his golf course by Boston gangsters working as informants for the FBI, but now the Justice Department says the Wheeler family and other victims of James ``Whitey'' Bulger's gang should get nothing for their losses.
In documents released yesterday in federal court, Justice Department attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Reginald C. Lindsay to throw out the Wheelers' case against the FBI for filing the $860 million lawsuit too late. Opting once again to use a ``statute of limitations defense'' in a Bulger-era civil suit against the government, DOJ argues the clock started ticking four years ago.
That's when disgraced former FBI supervisor John Morris first told a federal judge about informant Bulger's connection to Roger Wheeler's 1981 murder. The two-year window to sue the government then slammed shut in 2000, the lawyers claim. DOJ attorneys submitted Roger's son David Wheeler's May 1998 interview with ``60 Minutes,'' along with a pile of newspaper clips and Tulsa TV news reports, as proof the family knew they had a claim and missed their shot.
``I can understand them bringing these defenses in a technical case,'' said the Wheeler's outraged attorney Frank A. Libby Jr. ``But this isn't every case.'' Libby called the DOJ move a ``tactical decision made across the board'' in the collection of suits over informants Bulger and Stephen ``The Rifleman'' Flemmi.
The legal move heaped more agony on Wheeler's widow and children, according to their attorney, but came as little surprise to a family who believe their own government has spent 20 years protecting their father's killers.
``The family is very frustrated as a group,'' David Wheeler said in an earlier interview. ``We have laws and we're taught to obey laws and if someone doesn't, well, the cops are there to get them. But in this case, the cops were there to help him out.''
Compounding the family's grief is mounting evidence that retired Boston FBI agent H. Paul Rico may have played a direct role in Wheeler's murder. Rico was director of security for Wheeler's company, World Jai Alai.
During the corruption trial last month of Bulger's handler ex-agent John J. Connolly, Bulger gang hit man John Martorano testified that Rico provided the list of Wheeler's habits and his address. Martorano admitted he killed Wheeler because the Tulsa exec wouldn't sell his company to the gang.
Judge Lindsay has already denied similar government efforts to quash a $36 million lawsuit filed by the family of Michael Donahue. He was an ``unintended victim'' when Bulger riddled FBI informant Brian Halloran with bullets in 1982, according to testimony.
But Donahue's killing received far less publicity over the years than the Wheeler case and in 1998 when the Bulger-FBI connection first unraveled.
Another slant on the "RICO" law eh.
Even gangster revenge can be sweet.
How come they never got Connolly for driving the "block" car on the Halloran hit?
How about an attempt by a rich family to grab as much as they can from the average taxpayer? The idea that you can compensate for the death of a loved one by receiving money would be seen as grotesque if it wasn't so commonplace.
Hold news conferences to humilitate incompetent or worse government officials? Yes. But sue? Never.
By the way, in case anyone was thinking that winning a suit against a government agency hurts that agency by straining its budget, think again. Payouts come from the Department of Justice settlement fund, which in turn comes from you and me.
I agree that a lawsuit for big bucks isn't appropriate.
Another idea is to line them all up against a wall and have them shot for treason.
During the corruption trial last month of Bulger's handler ex-agent John J. Connolly, Bulger gang hit man John Martorano testified that Rico provided the list of Wheeler's habits and his address. Martorano admitted he killed Wheeler because the Tulsa exec wouldn't sell his company to the gang.
Which ones are the bad guys?
So if it was a poor family, you'd be outraged? It doesn't bother you that the FBI was complicit in the man's murder?
It's the only recourse the family has since the FBI refuses to bring the appropriate people to justice.
Lawsuits, though, should be targetted against the agents, however, rather than the agency.
Actually, one thing I'd like to see as a law making government agents who commit willful misconduct personally liable for any harm caused, and which compelled the government to file suit against such individuals on behalf of taxpayers any time such willful misconduct cost the "government" (taxpayers) money.
As you observe, the FBI and likely the US atorney for that district are surely lobbying the state to ignore their agents' possible crimes.
The current AG is Tom Reilly a wholely owned rumpswab of the Bulger clan. He's also the AG who can't seem to convene a grand jury to hear evidence against Cardinal "Bunny" Law regarding the ongoing homosexual priest scandal and coverup.
As the saying goes if you want to hide something from Reilly just stick it in his law books....he'll never find it.
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