Connolly shouts, insists on innocence in Fla. hearing

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

MIAMI -- In an impassioned appeal to a judge today before he is sentenced for a 1982 gangland murder, former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. accused a federal prosecutor of sitting on evidence that he was innocent in an earlier case, and shouted, "You let me rot in prison for five years!''

But the prosecutor, Fred Wyshak, fired back that Connolly's allegations weren't true and that the former agent spent decades covering up his corrupt relationship with longtime FBI informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman'' Flemmi, while the notorious gangsters got away with murders, and extorted drug dealers, bookmakers, and legitimate businessmen.

The heated exchange between Connolly -- who never took the stand at his Florida murder trial -- and the prosecutor came during an emotional hearing that ended with Connolly's sentencing being delayed until Jan. 15. The judge said he needed more time to weigh a belated motion by the defense to set aside the jury's verdict on statute of limitations grounds.

Connolly, 68, was convicted last month of second-degree murder with a gun, for leaking information to Bulger and Flemmi that prompted the pair to get a hitman to kill Boston business consultant John B. Callahan. The defense now argues that the jury, which found Connolly not guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, should not have been instructed that they could consider the lesser charge of second-degree murder because it was too late.

"I apologize to all of you who have spent the money to come down here,'' said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Stanford Blake, addressing a courtroom full of people who had flown in from around the country for the sentencing, including Callahan's widow and two children; Connolly's wife, brother, and sister; a small band of retired Boston police officers and Massachusetts State Police investigators whose investigations had allegedly been compromised by Connolly; and retired FBI agents and other friends who spoke in support of Connolly.

But the judge said the issue was too important to rule swiftly. So he delayed the pronouncement of sentence, but held a full hearing with testimony from all those who came to weigh in -- including Connolly.

After watching Callahan's son, Patrick, face the judge, with his mother and sister by his side, and read emotional statements about the loss they had suffered, Connolly stood, raised his right hand as he swore to tell the truth, and turned to the Callahan family.

"It's heartbreaking to hear what happened to your father and to your husband,'' Connolly said. "I am here to tell you that I played no role in that, none. And I am deeply pained that I am accused of doing anything to have taken a man's life.''

Unimpressed by Connolly's plea, Callahan's widow, Mary, later said, "I think from the bottom of his heart he wishes he didn't'' have a hand in the slaying. But, she said, she believes Connolly caused her husband's death.

In court, Connolly, who is already serving a 10-year prison term for his 2002 racketeering conviction in Boston, turned his wrath on Wyshak, a federal prosecutor from Boston who assisted in the Florida state prosecution of Connolly and previously spearheaded a lengthy investigation that led to murder and racketeering charges against Bulger and Flemmi.

In a loud, angry voice, Connolly, who did not testify in either his Florida or Boston trials, said Flemmi told prosecutors in 2003 that former New England Mafia boss Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme had lied while testifying in Connolly's Boston trial, but that Wyshak waited years to report Flemmi's allegations, "in violation of his moral, legal, ethical obligations.''

But when questioned in open court during a loud exchange with Wyshak, Connolly acknowledged that another prosecutor -- John Durham -- had prosecuted him, was aware of Flemmi's assertion that Salemme was lying, and at some point shared that information with the court. An appeals court rejected Connolly's bid for a new federal trial. Salemme was convicted of making false statements to investigators and obstruction of justice in a case that was prosecuted by Wyshak.

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