ohn
J. Connolly Jr. left the FBI a hero for turning Boston's most vicious gangsters
into powerful informants against the Mafia. But yesterday the retired FBI
special agent was convicted of being a criminal himself for protecting those
same informants, James ''Whitey'' Bulger and Stephen ''The Rifleman'' Flemmi, by
tipping them off to their indictment and trying to undermine the government's
efforts to convict the pair.
Yet even as jurors convicted Connolly, 61, of racketeering, obstruction of
justice, and lying to an FBI agent, they found that prosecutors failed to prove
the most serious charges against Connolly: that he leaked information that
prompted the two gangsters to kill three men in the 1970s and 1980s.
Jurors also found that prosecutors didn't prove that Connolly assisted Bulger
and Flemmi when they forced a couple to sell their South Boston liquor store in
1984.
The jury found that prosecutors proved that Connolly delivered a case of wine
with $1,000 tucked inside to FBI supervisor John Morris from Bulger and Flemmi
in 1982 or 1983. But the jury rejected additional allegations that Connolly
delivered two other bribes of $5,000 and $1,000 to Morris or that he
participated when Morris alerted Bulger and Flemmi in 1988 that a Roxbury
bookie's telephone was tapped.
And the jury also concluded that prosecutors failed to prove that
Connolly received a two-carat diamond ring from Bulger. That charge hinged
almost solely on the testimony of confessed hit man John Martorano, who
said that he gave the stolen diamond to Bulger, who said he was giving it
to Connolly as a present to his then-wife.
Neither Connolly's lawyer nor federal prosecutors would speculate on how
much prison time he is likely to face under federal sentencing guidelines,
but legal specialists have said it could be as much as eight to 10 years.
US District Judge Joseph L. Tauro said he would have revoked Connolly's
bail immediately if he had been convicted of leaking information that
caused the three killings, because he would have faced significantly more
prison time. Instead, he set sentencing for Aug. 7 and allowed Connolly to
remain free on the same $200,000 unsecured bond that was set after his
December 1999 arrest.
''It is always a sober moment when it becomes necessary to prosecute a
member of law enforcement who has abused his authority and crossed the line
from crime fighting to criminal,'' US Attorney Michael Sullivan said after
the verdict.
Connolly's ''appalling'' conduct was an affront to all law enforcement,
Sullivan said, adding that any charges against other FBI agents raised
during trial testimony would be investigated.
''We must always be ready to address head-on allegations of misconduct
and corruption, even when directed at members of the FBI,'' Sullivan said.
Charles Prouty, the special agent in charge of the Boston FBI office,
and Colonel Thomas Foley, head of the State Police, also joined Sullivan in
reacting to the verdict.
Prouty said the FBI would continue to take steps to repair any damage
caused by the Connolly case. ''It's a morale-buster, there's no question
about it,'' he said yesterday evening.
In reaction to the case, Prouty said, the FBI now has all new agents
take polygraph tests and has stepped up its monitoring of current agents.
There is an ongoing investigation into Special Agent John Newton, who was
suspended this month because of charges raised during the trial.
''This conduct was abhorrent to all honest FBI agents,'' Prouty said.
''We do want to turn the page and we hope to move on.''
As the verdict was read following 121/2 hours of deliberations over two
days, Connolly blinked repeatedly and stared straight ahead, avoiding eye
contact with the jury or his wife, Liz, who stood by his side. Once the
jury of six women and six men left the courtroom, Connolly hugged his
teary-eyed lawyer, Tracy Miner.
But Connolly, who has given countless interviews in the past to protest
his innocence, insisting that FBI superiors blessed his handling of Bulger
and Flemmi, left the courthouse with only two words, ''No comment.''
''We are obviously happy that the most serious charges were found to be
not proven,'' said Miner, adding, ''It seems to me to be an inconsistent
verdict.''
Part of the jury's verdict did appear contradictory when it came to the
question of whether Connolly, who retired in 1990, warned his longtime
informants, Bulger and Flemmi, and their codefendant, New England Mafia
boss Francis ''Cadillac Frank'' Salemme, to flee on the eve of their
January 1995 indictment. Bulger remains a fugitive on the FBI's 10 Most
Wanted list with a $1 million reward for his capture.
In finding Connolly guilty of racketeering, jurors found that he had
tipped off Bulger, Flemmi, and Salemme in advance of their indictment. But
jurors found Connolly not guilty of a separate obstruction-of-justice
charge of tipping off the gangsters to their indictment.
About two hours before reaching its verdict, the jury sent Tauro a
question asking whether they could make different findings on the two
charges, even though they contained the same allegation. The judge sent
back a note, saying, ''Yes.''
While Connolly was convicted of four of the five charges against him,
the verdict sent a strong message that jurors were unwilling to accept the
uncorroborated word of a rogue's gallery of government witnesses that
included Martorano, who admitted killing 20 people; former Bulger enforcer
Kevin J. Weeks, who participated in five murders; and Morris, who admitted
pocketing $7,000 in bribes from Bulger and Flemmi and tipping them off to
investigations.
Martorano testified that he, Bulger, and Flemmi killed Revere bookie
Richard Castucci in 1976. Martorano acknowledged he never met Connolly, but
testified that Bulger told him Connolly had warned him that Castucci was an
FBI informant and had revealed the hideout of two fugitive members of
Bulger's gang.
Weeks had testified that he served as ''lookout'' when Bulger gunned
down Brian Halloran on the South Boston waterfront on May 11, 1982, after
he was allegedly tipped off by Connolly that Halloran was an FBI informant
and had implicated him in the murder of a Tulsa businessman the previous
year.
Again, Weeks's information about Connolly being the source of the leak
was second-hand, coming through Bulger.
And Martorano said he killed Winter Hill gang associate John Callahan in
August 1982 because Bulger told him that he'd learned from Connolly that
the FBI was seeking Callahan as a potential witness against them.
Connolly cultivated Bulger as an informant in 1975 and inherited Flemmi
from another agent a year later. He is the only agent to be charged since
the FBI's corrupt relationship with Bulger and Flemmi was first exposed
during federal court hearings in 1998.
The hearings were triggered by Flemmi's assertion that the FBI had
authorized him and Bulger to commit crimes in exchange for information from
them about local Mafia leaders.
Ultimately, US District Judge Mark L. Wolf, who presided over those
hearings, rejected the claim by Flemmi, who later pleaded guilty and was
sentenced to 10 years in prison. But the revelations of his betrayal
prompted many of his former cohorts to cut deals with the government and
cooperate against him and Connolly.
And it was Connolly's meddling in the 1995 case and his attempt to help
Flemmi get it dismissed that came back to haunt him yesterday.
Jurors found Connolly guilty of obstruction of justice for writing an
anonymous letter to Wolf in March 1997 on Boston police stationery in an
effort to persuade the judge to drop the charges against Flemmi. The letter
falsely accusing retired Boston police Sergeant Detective Frank Dewan of
fabricating evidence against Bulger and Flemmi.
Contacted in Florida last night, Dewan said he was ''tremendously
pleased'' by the verdict, adding, ''As far as I'm concerned that clears all
the rumors that were spread by Connolly and his friends. He got so cocky.
He had been able to do what he wanted for so long that he thought he was
immune.''
Jurors also convicted Connolly of another obstruction count for helping
to persuade Flemmi to lie when he testified in the Wolf hearings and
falsely accuse Morris of leaking word to him of the 1995 indictment.
And Connolly was also found guilty of making a false statement to an FBI
agent in 1997 by denying he'd been in contact with Flemmi's defense team.
Telephone records proved he'd made numerous calls to Flemmi's lawyer.
Special Assistant US Attorney John Durham, who led the prosecution team,
said, ''Nobody in this country is above the law, an FBI agent or otherwise,
and ultimately the ends do not justify the means.''
Connolly
convicted
Defense
rests in FBI agent trial
James
'Whitey' Bulger