Posted on 10/28/2008 8:52:54 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
An embattled Massachusetts state senator appeared in a federal courtroom today charged with taking $23,500 in bribes, including cash that she stuffed into her bra during a meeting at a tony Boston restaurant that was secretly videotaped by an undercover FBI agent, federal prosecutors said.
Democratic state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson faces 40 years in prison after federal prosecutors outlined accusations that she accepted the bribes over an 18-month period in a money-for-legislative influence sting operation, prosecutors said. She had $6,000 in cash in her purse when she was arrested at her Roxbury home by nearly two dozen law enforcement officials, prosecutors said.
Photographs released by U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan showed Wilkerson stuffing 10 $100 bills into her bra at No. 9 Park restaurant last June. During another meeting with an undercover FBI agent two months later, Wilkerson took her granddaughter to accept a $1,000 kickback at the Fill-A-Buster restaurant, a famed political hotspot directly across the street from the Massachusetts State House, according to a 32-page affidavit filed in the case.
A federal complaint charges that Wilkerson accepted eight bribes totaling $23,500 over an 18-month period in exchange for her influence on Beacon Hill. Undercover agents posed as a property developer who wanted to build on state land, and another worked Wilkerson as a potential barroom owner willing to pay for a liquor license.
"She has a long history of acting as if she was above the law,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney John McNeil during Wilkerson's initial appearance in court.
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Wilkerson -– the state's only black state senator –- is a convicted tax cheat and a campaign finance scofflaw who has a long litany of legal problems that has marred her 15-year record as a lawmaker.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
They can’t convict her! She’s a democrat!
Just spreading the wealth ahead of time.
More pics here: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/gallery/10_28_08_wilkerson_surveillance?pg=5
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Need I say it????
GUILTY!!!!!!!!
(D) Boston...what a surprise. If it’s more than a mouthful, it’s a bribe...
These were not bribes. These were reparations.
She should have put it in the freezer. Dems don’t get in trouble for that.
Sounds like she comes highly recommended!
a Democrat taking bribes, I’m shocked! /sarc
Actually, I am shocked that they actually mentioned that she is a Democrat in the newz story. That’s a first!
Or stuffed it down her shorts a la Sandy Berger.
Wow... I heard Howie Carr talking about this for awhile today. The pics sure tell the story! LOL
As it says in the good book, “My cup runneth over.”
That is so ghetto.
Maybe she was breast feeding her chihuahua.
Just padding the budget. *cough*
Yeah.
I guess we should all be grateful she didn’t stuff the “junk in da trunk”.
Lord knows I would NOT want to see surveilance pics of her doing that!
Show me an honest black democrat and I’ll show you a black democrat that hasn’t been convicted.
Commission to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities; Steering Committee for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under the Law
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