Despite sentence, Connolly's legal fight not over
By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff
MIAMI - Former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. received a sentence today that would keep him in prison until at least 2021 for his role in the execution of a Boston businessman, but his legal fight is far from over.
John Connolly spoke after his sentencing in December. (Boston Globe video) |
Defense attorney Manuel L. Casabielle said he will immediately file a motion urging the judge to vacate Connolly's illegal sentence, and expects to win in the lower court and on appeal.
"There is no doubt in my mind that John has won,'' Casabielle said. "The judge pretty much has said he's going to grant our motion ... he has unequivocally said that the [sentence] is illegal.''
Prosecutors said they believe a Florida appeals court would uphold Connolly's conviction and sentence.
"Although we respect Judge Blake, our reading of the case law differs from his and we believe we will be upheld on appeal,'' said Miami Dade Assistant State attorney Michael Von Zamft.
The actual sentence Connolly received was for 40 years. He will be required to serve at least 1/3 of the sentence, which will begin when he finishes his federal prison term in June 2011. He will receive credit for the 3-1/2 years he has been in custody in a Miami jail awaiting trial, which means roughly that he would not be eligible for release for another 12 years. That would mean that Connolly, 68, would not be released from prison until he is about 80 years old.
Connolly was convicted by a jury in November of second-degree murder with a gun in the slaying of John B. Callahan. Prosecutors accused him of leaking information to longtime FBI informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi that caused the two gangsters to orchestrate the 1982 murder of Callahan, who was a potential witness against them.
"Mr. Connolly, as you befriended murderers like James "Whitey" Bulger and Stevie Flemmi, you left, as the jury found, law enforcement and you forfeited that badge that so many people wear proudly and you became part of this criminal organization," said Blake, who presided over the eight-week trial
Although Connolly did "some good police work initially,'' Blake said the jury found that he "stepped over this line of law enforcement in working with criminals in order to bring down this organization [the Mafia]."
"Mr. Connolly, the jury has found you tarnished the badge that so many wear proudly," Blake said. "For an FBI agent to go to the dark side is a sad, sad day for any judge or any society to see.''
When the sentenced was rendered, Connolly sat still in his dark suit jacket, khaki pants, and a red and blue tie. His wife, Elizabeth, brother, James, and sister, Sally, watched from the public gallery. The victim's widow, Mary Callahan, and other family members listened to the sentencing on a conference call from Massachusetts.
"Evil triumphs when a few good men fail to act and that's what happened in the Boston office of the FBI," said Fred Wyshak, a federal prosecutor from Boston who assisted the state of Florida in prosecuting Connolly.
"It wasn't a single episode of misconduct,'' Wyshak said after the sentencing. "It was a pattern of misconduct over 20 years. They can't hide anymore. The jury has spoken."
Connolly is serving a 10-year prison term for his 2002 conviction on federal charges of racketeering, obstruction of justice, and lying. He was found guilty of warning Bulger and Flemmi to flee just before the gangsters were indicted on racketeering charges in 1995.
Bulger, 79, who is charged with 19 murders, remains one of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted, with a $2 million reward offered for information leading to his capture.
In the Florida case, jurors found that Connolly essentially signed Callahan's death warrant by telling Bulger and Flemmi that the FBI was seeking Callahan for questioning and that the businessman would probably implicate the gangsters in the 1981 killing of World Jai Alai owner Roger Wheeler.
During the trial, jurors heard Flemmi, who is serving a life sentence for 10 murders, testify that Connolly's tip prompted him and Bulger to enlist hitman John Martorano to kill Callahan. Martorano, who is free after serving 12 years for 20 murders, told jurors that he reluctantly lured his friend, Callahan, to Florida and shot him in the head. Callahan's body was discovered Aug. 2, 1982, in the trunk of his car at Miami International Airport.
After the verdict, Connolly's attorneys argued that jurors were erroneously told by the judge before deliberations that if they acquitted the former agent of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, they could consider the lesser charge of second-degree murder with a gun.
Under current Florida law, there is no statute of limitations on any crime resulting in death. But at the time of Callahan's death, there was a four-year statute of limitations on second-degree murder, unless a gun was used.
But Casabielle has argued that Florida case law indicates that only the person who shoots the gun in a killing can be convicted of second-degree murder with a gun. It is uncontested that Connolly was vacationing on Cape Cod when Martorano shot Callahan.
"It is unfair for John to be convicted of a crime in which the statute has run," Casabielle said in a phone interview this week. "The government is coming up with these theories that turn the law as we know it today on its head."
Prosecutors insisted that Casabielle's interpretation of the law is wrong and that Connolly did not have to be the shooter to be convicted of second-degree murder with a gun.
Von Zamft said jurors made a specific finding that Connolly was an armed participant in Callahan's killing because he was carrying his FBI firearm when he met with Bulger and Flemmi and leaked them information that instigated the murder.
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John Connolly was the fall guy for Jeremiah O'Sullivan and higher ups at the FBI in Boston
I have very little sympathy for Connolly. However, the judge said "...you left, as the jury found, law enforcement and you forfeited that badge that so many people wear proudly ......."
Other law enforcement may wear the badge proudly, but wearing it proudly does not mean you are above reproach. Connolly is not first in line, he is only one of many, he just got caught.
Judge Blake violated his oath of office by admitting Conolly's motion to dismiss verdict has "merit" and will succede on appeal. Judges have to stop fearing the media. Too many judges have weak knees like Blake. The jury found that Connolly did not conspire with criminals to kill Callahan. The jury found that Connolly did not premeditate the murder of Callahan. Instead, the jury reached a defective and impossible compromise verdict that was the result of a month of irrelevant and unreliable testimony that Freddy Wyshak bought from guys like Sickle Cell Martorano with our tax dollars.
No question Connolly is nothing but a sleaze bag and deserves to be out of society until he's 80. Good verdict that's merely a step in the right direction.
To those defending him, please go back to the cave you came from. He's bad for Boston, bad for the FBI, bad for his family, bad for his law abiding friends. Only the genuinely stupid can see any virtue in that waste of skin.
But it baffles the mind how another sleaze bag hit man Johnny Martorano can actually be allowed the walk the streets of this area. Still much distrust of the judicial system because of that. And Two Weeks Weeks? He's a mere mouse in the forrest.
Seeya later Zippo!! Maybe we'll see you come out using a walker.
Why does this seem like the sequel to "The Departed?"
Why is the guy who did the actual murder (along with 20 other people) walking around free?
John Mortorano, "who is free after serving 12 years for 20 murders" -- this is a travesty of justice -- outrageous, offensive, and unbelievable that a person who committed 20 murders served only 12 years in prison.
i obseve many times when police over step there authority and lie about it. who police the police?
It's an incremental type of thing this sort of corruption. You develop an informant ,which are often likeable folks believe it or not . And as you make more and more cases with their information, you want to keep that flow of information coming from them so you get friendlier and friendlier with the informant. This was a Bureau thing more than a Connolly thing in my view. They didn't have him check in to make sure he wasn't getting too close. He just lost his way. The irony is that he ran the most successful top echelon informant ever but badly damaged the likelihood that future informants will cooperate.
No fall guy, just another scumbag with a badge. That office rots from the top to the bottom.
Connolly can rot. Bulger and connolly are responsible for the misery in South Boston and the whole greater Boston area for 20 years. Can't wait until Bulger is dragged back in chains. Certainly he will face judgment somewhere, if only from God.
Conolly stood on the Northern Ave bridge one evening and watched
Bulger machine gun M. Donahue's car and shooting one of the 2 men in the
car 14 times.This was all set up by your FBI (Tax dollars @ work)
The FBI sent 4 men to die in the Electric chair that has been proven in a court
of law in Boston. If the death penalty had not been abolished in this state,4
men would have been killed by the FBI,and they knew they were innocent.
How much does a judge cost?Can't be that much.They are bought and sold
everyday like livestock.
We can only hope someone in the can- slips him real justice
Connelly is the fall guy? I dont know about that. But what DOES seem to be pretty evident is that Connelly let killers know that a certain guy needed to be killed. He is the sole reason Whitey is on the run. LEt the cracks widen and let things slip through. This so called human is a guilty man. He is guilty of heinous crimes. He is where he deserves to be until he is well over 100 years old. Prefferably dead. RIH Connelly Rot In Hell
The "authorities" lament when indigent defendants "get off" on a "technicality". Now, the same is used by one of the corrupt former members of the Brotherhood.
They like to say "what goes around, comes around", and so this is particularly good news. What would be better is that the trail was allowed to continue on, past Connolly, to all those who allowed - if not fostered (and perhaps still do) - the illegalities.
It is interesting, timely, and I think relevant to note that Connolly essentially engaged in sanctioned illegality which resulted, as in this case, with sanctioned mob execution. In essence the authorities made their own rules. The parallel being the current (but soon former) bush maladministration, who under cover of *their own law* violated ours.
Connolly gets canned. The bush maladministration goes free, and gets national TV coverage to issue apologetic (not apology), setting up doubt in the potential future jury pool that they were really good guys and let's just "move on".
As in Connolly, let's move on to investigation, indictment, and trial.
Who cares. This story is less important the the hate war being waged by Israel in Gaza.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip—Israel shelled the United Nations headquarters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, engulfing the compound and a warehouse in fire and destroying thousands of pounds of food and humanitarian supplies intended for Palestinian refugees.
C'mon Globe open up this article for discussion!!!! Cowards.
"In the Florida case, jurors found that Connolly essentially signed Callahan's death warrant" - Does essentially mean definitively. So Connolly gets 40 years for essentially causing the death of shady business man...while "Martorano, who is free after serving 12 years for 20 murders" roams the streets. I know its not as black and white as that, but that seems shocking to me. I mean Connolly is sentenced to 40 years for being possibly connected to a murder, while the guy who actually committed murder, and 19 others, is free.
Meanwhile, somewhere on a tropical island, Whitey reads this story and these comments on the internet, takes a long slow slurp from his frozen rum runner, leans back in his chair and thinks, what a bunch of suckers they all were.....I wonder what I dhall for dinner this evening...
Attorneys are well known for their ability to dilute and manipulate words and phrases within a sentence to give it a different meaning, one that suits their needs: This is a good example of their work.
Question: Why is the guy who did the actual murder (along with 20 other people) walking around free?
Answer: Any law enforcement agency will make a deal with the devil, even if it means putting the wrong guy in jail, just to put a tight lid on the case. In making a deal with the devil, the end almost always justifies the means.
Freddy Wyshak, how did you let this happen? Those Miami DAs should have let you handle the whole thing.
God Bless you John. I hope that people here will read the words of the Judge "the sentance is ILLEGAL". Is it not the prosecuters that decide to bring and make a case against an individual-- and in this situation was it not impossible to charge him under the law but-- they do it anyway? The zeal that powers to be have done to scapegoat Connolly should be a concern all of us that believe in the rule of law.
I have to agree that Martorano should not be walking the streets for commiting multiple murders while the facilitator for one of those murders stands to serve as much as three times the sentence. No, I do not think that Connolly should be dealt a light sentence or that it should be reversed. Once upon a time if someone was killed in the commission of a crime all those involved were subject to the same penalty as the actual murderer. There was never a statute of limitations on murder. We have become a society of men and not of laws...one of the many signs of our degrading society...
It looks loke Connolly would have got off that charge if his lawyers had bought the technicality up before the 10 days required to file. Now he got 40 years. I guess that's what you get when you pick an attorney out of the Miami Yellow Pages. John can't seem to buy one here. Whitey could have a t least sent him some money to get a decent law firm after all he did for him,
Everyone that thinks the poor man is guilty needs to back off. the guy is 68 years old and should be released out to see his family.
Hey "Bob", get your facts right. Connolly wasn't present for the shooting of Donohue. The Herald confused him with Weeks as the lookout. Bulger didn't shoot Donohue with a machine gun. Pat Nee shot him (without a mask on) with a semi-automatic carbine. Weeks lied about this shooting to protect Nee for teh Feds. At his sentencing hearing, the Feds also told Martorano to refuse to tell Donahue's family the truth about the shooting. Although a murderer, Nee is being protected and paid by the Feds because he is a top organized crime figure who they use to catch other criminals. Does that sound familiar?
I find the whole thing so upsetting. Mr. Connelly was my high school teacher many many moons ago. All the female students had a crush on Mr. Connelly. He was a great guy. I don't know what happened, but he should have stuck to teaching.
Posted by one of your favorite typing students RA
Essentially,,,, the fact is this. John Connolly will be a free man in less than two years.
Callahan became a target for being kiiled by Bulger and company the day he conspired to kill Roger Wheeler with them. Nobody needed to tell Bulger that Callahan could be a possible informant because they already knew he had this information becasue he was part of it! Connolly did what the FBI wanted him do do, and they DK'd him when things went bad. He did stray from what he should have done, but everyone but the guy that help take down Anguillo and the Mafia got a get out of jail free card.
Where are all the other FBI Agents who worked in that office at that time and went on all these adventures w/him? Are they collecting a government pension? Oh yes they are. There is something wrong with that considering Mortorano is out enjoying a movie deal. Maybe the real story will be told someday.
I believe Whitey Bulger whereabouts is known by the FBI. He has too much stuff on too many people to be "captured" . They throw out a little tease of his sightings now and then to make it look like their on his trail.
Now Barack will give him a pardon. The poor guy has suffered enough don't you think?
Putting Connelly away for good would be just and right because of his other crimes, but you can't forget, that in this case,
1. He didn't actually do anything but hint to a couple lunatic killers that there was one more guy that it might be a good idea a kill--a scumbag who himself had ordered a different man's death.
2. His FBI supervisors were just as crooked as he was and have walked away scot-free. The entire FBI is still tainted as long as they refuse to bring to justice Connelly's entire chain of command up to the director.
Joe, This seems like a sequel to "The Departed" because that movie was based on this very case.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
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