Defense attorney: Catherine Greig is still in love with James ‘Whitey’ Bulger and ‘stands by it’

By Milton J. Valencia, Shelley Murphy and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Catherine Greig, the girlfriend of notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, remains in love with him and doesn’t regret her life on the lam with him even though it got her sentenced today to eight years in prison, her defense attorney said.

Catherine Greig (US Marshals/AP)

“She was and is in love with Mr. Bulger, and she’s certainly a person who does not regret what she did in living her life with him. He’s the love of her life, and she stands by it,” attorney Kevin Reddington said.

Reddington also said, “if she could be with the guy right now, she’d be with him. And she doesn’t believe for one minute that he’s guilty or capable of these horrible crimes. She doesn’t buy it, she doesn’t believe it, and she absolutely stands by her man.”

“I think she thinks it was worth it,” he said.

Greig, 61, was sentenced today in US District Court on charges of conspiracy to harbor a fugitive, conspiracy to commit identity fraud, and identity fraud. Prosecutors say she was the “key actor” in a conspiracy that allowed Bulger to evade law enforcement for 16 years.

Bulger was allegedly a vicious gangster who rampaged through Boston’s underworld while protected as a highly valued FBI informant. He was able to escape capture initially because of a tipoff from a corrupt FBI agent, then eluded law enforcement for 16 years. Accused of 19 murders, he is slated to go on trial this fall.

Prosecutors say Greig protected Bulger from being discovered by law enforcement during his years on the lam, handling daily tasks for them and helping to steal the identities of vulnerable people, all the while fully aware that their Santa Monica, Calif., apartment was stockpiled with weapons and cash.

“We’re all responsible for what we do,” US District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock told Greig at the sentencing hearing. “We all make choices.”

“There has to be a price imposed,” the judge said, “to serve as general deterrence.”

Relatives of Bulger’s victims gave brief but emotional testimony today during the sentencing hearing, one of them hurling an expletive at her, and another mentioning the suicide of her brother, which reduced her to tears.

Reddington called it “nasty,” “repulsive,” and “disgusting” and suggested that was why Greig did not offer her own statement during the hearing.

“Would you want to say something to the people who have been in pain if they called you a dirty [expletive] and then they said that if you were their sister they’d kill themselves? ... Would you want to apologize to someone for being in love with the guy and being with him for all of those years?” he said.

“She’s glad it’s over, and she understands what she has to do, and she’s going to be able to do it without a hitch,” Reddington said.