US investigators seize State House records in Finneran probe

Federal investigators have seized files from some State House computers that were used in legislative redistricting, according to two senior legislative sources. The agents were gathering data, including deleted e-mails and other documents, as part of their probe into the veracity of House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran's testimony in a federal civil court case.

The FBI, using a subpoena it had delivered to the Special Committee on Redistricting on March 10, went to Beacon Hill last month and removed the information from the computers used by the Senate to draw districts for the 2002 election, said the sources, who asked not to be identified.

The agents were particularly seeking any documents, either e-mails or letters, that showed Finneran was in contact with the Senate map-makers over redistricting. Such documents do not exist, according to one of the legislative sources.

"They vacuumed everything in the computer," he said, noting that the FBI was able to collect from the computer hard drives e-mails and other information that had been previously deleted.

The examination so far appears to be limited to the Senate computers. The committee's attorney, Thomas M. Hoopes, could not be reached for comment about whether House computers had been similarly searched. The US attorney's office has said it will neither confirm or deny the investigation.

Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into whether the powerful House speaker was truthful in the testimony he gave about his role in the 2001 redistricting process.

The federal probe followed a highly unusual rebuke by the three federal judges who presided over a lawsuit brought by voting rights groups over the House plan. In a footnote to their ruling, the judges questioned the veracity of statements Finneran made when he described his lack of involvement in the work of the committee. The committee was chaired by a top House lieutenant, Representative Thomas Petrolati of Ludlow.

In the footnote, the judges said: "Although Speaker Finneran denied any involvement in the redistricting process, the circumstantial evidence strongly suggests the opposite conclusion."

The speaker told the Globe two weeks ago that he is confident he will emerge from the federal probe unscathed. Finneran said he had testified at numerous points in the case that he had, in fact, played a role in the redistricting process.

In the opinion, the judges noted that Finneran had hand-picked the committee and its chairman, and had ensured that the panel hired his boyhood friend, Boston lawyer and redistricting specialist Lawrence DiCara, as its "principal functionary." The judges also noted that Finneran's then-counsel, John Stefanini, had the software used in redrawing the legislative map installed on his computer in office.

Finneran's lawyer, Richard M. Egbert, launched a public defense of his client two weeks ago, declaring the judges were "simply wrong." He noted Finneran's testimony in which he had described a dozen or so conversations with DiCara and conversations "from time to time" with Petrolati about the redistricting process. Under questioning during the trial, Finneran was asked if he knew what was going to be in the redistricting plan before it was distributed on Oct. 17, 2001. "No, I did not," he told the court.

The Globe has reported on meetings that Finneran held with legislators whose districts were significantly changed by the newly drawn district maps.

Former Republican Representative Carol Cleven of Chelmsford told the Globe in April that she had a conversation with the speaker in his office in 2001 before the plan's release and was told her suburban Lowell district was being eliminated. Also prior to the plan being made public, Finneran met with three Democratic representatives, Kay Kahn and Ruth B. Balser of Newton and Peter Koutoujian of Waltham, and described how the districts held by Balser and Kahn would be merged, according to a person who attended the session.