Guilty plea, no jail time expected for Finneran
Ex-speaker would admit obstruction
Former House speaker Thomas M. Finneran, in an agreement that will allow him to avoid prison time, will plead guilty tomorrow to obstruction of justice in exchange for federal prosecutors' dropping perjury charges against him, according to two sources familiar with the deal.
Finneran, who faced 16 to 21 months in prison if convicted on all counts, will serve a term of unsupervised probation and pay a fine to end the long legal battle over charges that he misrepresented his role in the creation of a legislative redistricting map that diluted the clout of minority voters.
Finneran, 56, a lawyer and once-powerful figure on Beacon Hill, will enter his plea before US District Judge Richard G. Stearns. Finneran has also agreed not to seek political office for five years, and his case will be referred to the state Board of Bar Overseers for possible disbarment.
The plea agreement marks a turnabout for Finneran, who had insisted he was innocent and had declared he would not be "losing any sleep" over the federal case against him.
His trial was scheduled to begin Jan. 16.
Finneran, who has been president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council for two years, did not respond to several calls made to his office seeking comment. His attorney, Richard Egbert, declined to comment, as did Christina DiIorio Sterling, a spokeswoman for US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan's office.
Officials at the Biotechnology Council could not be reached last night.
The criminal case stemmed from Finneran's November 2003 testimony in a civil suit brought by the Black Political Caucus and other voting-rights groups that sought to overturn the House's 2001 legislative redistricting plan on the grounds it was unfair to minority voters. A three-judge panel threw out the redistricting plan in 2004 and sharply scolded Finneran in a footnote to the decision, strongly implying that he had misled the court when he testified that he had little involvement in the drawing of the district lines.
Federal prosecutors indicted the former speaker in June 2005, and in the indictment outlined a series of eight meetings that he held about redistricting.
Finneran faced three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. The perjury charges stemmed from his testimony in court and in an earlier deposition in which he allegedly lied about his role. The obstruction of justice charge was brought against him because prosecutors said that, by making misleading statements, he had interfered with the judges' efforts to determine whether the voting rights of minorities were violated.
Both charges are felonies, but obstruction of justice carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence and perjury carries five years.
At the time of the indictment, however, federal prosecutors said that under federal sentencing guidelines Finneran would have faced a sentence ranging from 16 to 21 months if he was convicted of all counts.
Finneran allies alleged that the indictment of the former speaker was driven by partisan forces. Egbert at one point said the case "smacks of politics."
But US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, a Republican and a former state representative who had served with Finneran, strongly denied the allegations. He said the charges in the indictment represented a "severe breach of the public trust" by Finneran.
The case had riveted the Beacon Hill establishment, in part because of the contrast between Finneran's reputation for micromanaging House business and his testimony in which he suggested he was passive during the process and wielded no special influence over legislation.
When asked whether he had reviewed "any of the redistricting plans as the process proceeded, " Finneran said: "Not as the process proceeded. No sir." He said that the first time he viewed a plan was when it was publicly filed with the House clerk's office.
Finneran stepped down as speaker in September 2004 to lead the Biotechnology Council , with an annual salary of $540,000 .
His future at the council is unclear. In recent months he has been negotiating a contract with WRKO radio to host a drive-time talk show. The contract was being held up until he resolved his legal problems. Finneran has filled in over the years for other talk show hosts, displaying his sharp tongue and agile mind.
As a member of the House, where he served for 26 years, Finneran earned a reputation as a tough political insider, with strongly conservative social views on abortion and gay rights. Finneran dominated the House -- and much of the business on Beacon Hill -- for more than a dozen years during which he first chaired the Ways and Means Committee and then served 8 1/2 years as speaker .
He stunned the political world in 1996 when he snatched the speaker's job from House majority leader Richard Voke, the favorite among Democrats. With his band of Democrat ic supporters, Finneran forged a secret pact with the Republican caucus to outmaneuver Voke.
He led the House with an iron hand, marginalizing liberals, reformers, and Democrats who crossed him. He tightly controlled the flow of legislation, blocking many initiatives that he opposed -- often by refusing to allow them to come up for a vote. 