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Dianne Wilkerson arrested
By adamg on Tue, 10/28/2008 - 9:34am
On federal corruption charges, PolitickerMA reports.
The Globe reports the federal government alleges Wilkerson was caught on tape taking bribes.
UPDATE: Read the FBI affidavit. Or take a look at photos allegedly showing Wilkerson putting cash in her bra (including the one above - the entire collection is a 1.2M PDF file).
Innocent, etc.
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i cant believe it?????
She must have been set up by someone from Southie.
500 bucks Dianne? Really? Wow.
Will the charges stick?
Will she be disbarred? Or embarred?
Maybe she's just going to jail to improve her street cred.
where is Deja Vu?
Google and Switchboard are not finding it for me, and I don't see a listing in last week's Weekly Dig, Phoenix, or Globe Sidekick.
Deja Vu Location
Deja Vu, which is a national nightclub conglomerate, says that their Boston location is on the corner of Washington St. and Essex St. They advertise exotic dancers, wet T-shirt contests, and special performances by XXX stars.
I don't remember seeing a sign for the club last time I walked through there, but given the advertised entertainment it may be just an easily missed blank door. Maybe under the RMV?
http://www.cd-factory.com/DEJAVU/dejavu.htm
According to the complaint ...
Deja Vu was going to open in the Crosstown center on Melnea Cass Boulevard. The complaint alleges that Wilkerson did some heavy lobbying of Tom Menino for one of those special new liquor licenses the city got and that Hizzona agreed to do her a favor and have one of the licenses "freed up."
The complaint makes interesting reading, of course, and provides a handy summary of all the legal action against Wilkerson over the years, including the case over which she might have been disbarred.
Is this the same Deja Vu?
Interesting link, but are you sure this would have been a branch of that, rather than just an unrelated local restaurant with the same name?
If it was going to be part of that chain, advocating for it would surely be against the interest of her constituents who live nearby.
Maybe not
Looks like the complaint talks about a club opening on Melnea Cass Blvd., and not in the former Combat Zone. However, if there was already a club called Deja Vu in Boston then a new one either would need to be part of the same chain or change its name.
The FBI knows for sure. But given the neighborhood around the corner of Mass. Ave. and Melnea Cass Blvd., the Deja Vu chain may be exactly what constituents in that area want.
Attempted extortion, too
LOL
Hahaha, Awesome.
Where she put the money, allegedly
The Herald reports:
The Globe says she put the money in her bra
And in another case:
Fillabustiering?
Wouldn't that be "fill-a-bustiere"?
Name a sandwich after her
A stack of lettuce in a warm pita = The Dianne Wilkerson.
*** line of the week ***
*** line of the week ***
Thank you, thank you
A horrid pun ... it just sort of popped out at me.
I wuz robbed
I demand a recount. That spot is reserved for a joke off color.
5% of the State Senate has been arrested this year
that is, 2 out of 40. The other one was Arlington's Jim Marzilli.
I do not know whether
I do not know whether Wilkerson is guilty of this alleged crime.
But this does remind me of something a colleague once told me had surprised him when he got into journalism (in a different part of the country).. He wasn't surprised that so many politicians could be bought; what did surprise him was that the bribes were *so small*. A $5K bribe could translate to actions worth millions of dollars to a business.
well, duh
He wasn't surprised that so many politicians could be bought; what did surprise him was that the bribes were *so small*.
Of course. It's not democracy if none of your constituents can afford you.
Ethics complaint filed against Chang-Diaz
Local lawyer claims one voter voted early for her because her Web site erroneously listed an endorsement from El Mundo. The campaign took down the link this week, a week after Wilkerson took down a page that listed a slew of endorsements from elected officials who were no longer backing her.
Wicked erroneous
If someone got the false impression that El Mundo had endorsed Chang-Diaz, it's pretty likely they got that from reading the paper.
Sounds like a newspaper problem, not a Chang-Diaz problem. At most newspapers, there's a unified editorial voice, and when there's an actual editorial endorsing a candidate, it's the newspaper's endorsement.
Attorney Brian Monohan seems pretty dumb:
So he's suing Chang-Diaz because of what El Mundo printed? Hack.
I want to hear the tape with
I want to hear the tape with Mumbles.
not recorded, Dot Joyce avoids heart attack
"This is senator Wilkerson claiming she had a conversation with the mayor and then relying that information," said Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for Menino. "There was never any intercept of the mayor's phone conversation with FBI."
And then under her breath after she hung up the phone: "...and thank fucking god for that, because otherwise the entire Boston city government would be fucked."
Disappointed
Nathan Spencer twitters:
Jeff Cutler: Now she's got more to worry about than race and the race...
I am thrilled to hear that
I am thrilled to hear that she has finally been exposed as the cheat and the fraud that she is--but it is ridiculous that in this city it's so difficult to get a liquor license that you have to bribe elected officials to get one. Did she really get into all this trouble over 1000 bucks? Unreal. I guarantee that her political career is not over.
No, it's $23,500 in bribes.
No, it's $23,500 in bribes.
But some of the bribes were
But some of the bribes were for as little as 500 or 1000 bucks--23,000 is the total. So cheap!
A cynic would say...
...that if this is the way the candidate "of color" (per Jean McGuire) behaves, then maybe it's good that the primary went to the candidate who comes from a "different community" (per Chuck Turner).
If you're going to run a campaign where your surrogates go out and abuse the opposition based on race, as if you are more of a stand-up person and "representing a core" of your community (per Wilkerson herself) because you are black and you suggest your opponent is not even latino...then getting busted by the Feds on undercover video and audio for extortion and taking bribes is obviously not the way to go about being that pillar of your race for which you propose to represent.
Full text of criminal complaint
is here.
Photos of Wilkerson putting cash in her bra
Here (1.2M PDF file). It's the appendix to the complaint linked above. One example:
I hope to never see something like this again...
You've seen it. You can't
You've seen it.
You can't unsee it.
please, pretty please, please, PLEASE
Adam, put this in the story for the front page :-)
Bust-ed!
Exhibit D? Not DD?
She's going to need extra room in there for those C-notes.
Would that be the C-Section?
Playtex Credit Union
She's just keeping abreast of her campaign finance picture.
She just didn't realize that while she was underwiring money, somebody else was wearing a wire under.
Exactly! And
She wasn't banking on an undercover operation.
What form do you fill out to get a liquor license in Boston?
A Maidenform.
Things I learned from the report
From the complaint, the FBI agent comments that a cooperating witness saw Wilkerson receive a 2nd bribe in their presence because she fell behind on her mortgage and pinged the club owner for a second payment! Well, obviously, we *can't* pass Question 1 now! We're not even paying our state reps enough to live on the edge of Franklin Park!
Even worse, she started race-baiting even in pursuit of this corruption! In early July 2007, she sent a package of information to a Globe columnist complaining about the lack of liquor licenses available to minorities in the city! She was attempting to foment a political environment that would grease the wheels for her minority friend trying to open a nightclub with a full liquor license. It's not enough for her to actually try to extract favors from other politicians, but to then try to stir the public through the press in order to influence her corrupt path is just sickening.
Then, after one of the bribe payments (even though she was falling behind on her mortgage only months before), she went to Foxwoods with the money!
Also, Wilkerson still uses AOL. LOL.
Also, her nickname is evidently "DeeWee" based on one of the e-mail addresses she gave them for correspondence. Also LOL.
The litany of evidence against her is truly damning. I hope she goes away for a very, very long time. She is an absolute blight on our state politics and anyone who has backed her (I'm looking at you, you crazy rat bastard, Chuck Turner) had better be quick to make distance from her. If they don't then I hope she's a political anchor that sinks them to the bottom just as fast.
What a mess...
Wilkerson aside, when will the Globe finally realize that the street is Melnea Cass not Melena Cass?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melnea_Cass_Boulevard
MCBlvd
Sadly, that one took me years.
They've now fixed it.
The good news is they fix stuff like this quickly if you e-mail them about it. The bad news is that I've noticed them messing up things like lose/loose more often too.
Until I read this right now,
Until I read this right now, I always thought that as well.
You and DeeWee both
'cept she thought it was Melanin Cash Boulevard.
It is what it is
I've always just called it Mama Cass Boulevard.
Thanks for the morning chuckles
Every person in my office is currently crowded in front of a computer shrieking at the money-into-bra action.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Note the ads
I'm getting a Lane Bryant bra ad next to this thread.
--Kelly
Minds are like parachutes. Just because you've lost yours doesn't mean you can borrow mine. - http://despair.com/sanity.html
Different ad, just as apropos
The one I got next to her photo says "Relax. We'll handle it." (from AT&T)
Is she going to claim that
Is she going to claim that it was because of a death threat again, one that happened after the crime?
it should be noted that WHDH
it should be noted that WHDH broke the story first. The boston globe didn't update their website to reflect the breaking news (and did not have a story up when they did, only said "WHDH reported") until 35-40 minutes after WHDH interrupted the Today show to announce that she had been arrested by the FBI on corruption charges. See my blog for details/timeline riforever.blogspot.com
No class
You'd think with all those different bribes she'd at least know the proper way to put money into her bra - yikes. (Lots of little old ladies could show her the discrete way to do it but I guess discretion isn't something she's familiar with.)
Feeling betrayed
That would be David at Blue Mass. Group, who was moved by a talk Wilkerson gave at the Democratic convention in Denver about her rise from poverty and her "burning desire to represent the poor and underserved." Now, he says:
'A self-destructive streak so immutable ..."
Michael Jonas tries to sum up Wilkerson's career:
What of the next generation?
Mike Ball, who's been chronicling Wilkerson's baggage for awhile now, hears of her indictment and thinks of the future:
Wilkerson released on bond
$50,000.
Now, did she pull that out of her bra
Or did she have to hit the panty fund for that?
From WHDH
Two sentences from the article you linked to stand out to me:
Yes, good point, that's usually how they catch criminals/repeat offenders...by targeting them.
Wow, her son totally thinks she's guilty.
The other interesting thing
Was the quote from the US Attorney about how he didn't think any other elected officials took bribes; just that they were engaging in normal horsetrading.
It's just that
Nobody else could fit a horse in her bra.
Photo opp
My friends spent like 10 minutes last night cracking up after seeing the photo that you chose.