Court disbars Bulger associate
Says he advised lying about contact
A lengthy federal investigation into whether former University of Massachusetts president William M. Bulger obstructed efforts to capture his gangster brother, James "Whitey" Bulger, ended last year without any criminal charges.
But last week William Bulger's longtime friend and former law partner, Thomas E. Finnerty, 72, was quietly disbarred by the state's highest court for advising a client to lie to a federal grand jury in 1998 that was investigating the fugitive gangster's contacts with relatives and friends.
Finnerty, a Boston lawyer for 48 years, will be barred from practicing law for at least eight years and may apply for reinstatement after that, Constance Vecchione, counsel for the Board of Bar Overseers, said yesterday.
Finnerty filed a letter of resignation from the practice of law with the Supreme Judicial Court on May 21, citing an ongoing investigation by the Board of Bar Overseers into whether he was guilty of misconduct for obstructing the federal fugitive investigation nearly 12 years ago.
Supreme Judicial Court Justice Margot Botsford accepted Finnerty's resignation and ordered his disbarment Wednesday.
Finnerty has known William Bulger, the former president of the Massachusetts Senate, since junior high school and shared a law practice with him for decades.
James "Whitey" Bulger, 78, fled shortly before his January 1995 federal racketeering indictment and has eluded authorities ever since. He is being sought in connection with 19 murders and remains one of the FBI's 10 most wanted.
In 1998, the FBI tracked calling cards indicating that the fugitive had made dozens of telephone calls to the Boston area in the summer of 1996, including one to the South Boston home of Paul I. Dooley, a Senate court officer.
In an affidavit submitted to the court along with his resignation, Finnerty did not identify Dooley by name, but acknowledged the investigation indicated that he told his client to lie to the grand jury by asserting that he was home alone when the gangster called. The lie was to protect Bulger's youngest brother, John, who was not only present, but talked on the phone with the fugitive, according to the affidavit.
Finnerty knew that if his client told the truth, then John Bulger, who had previously told the grand jury he never had telephone contact with his fugitive brother, could be indicted for perjury, according to the affidavit.
John Bulger, a former clerk magistrate at Boston Juvenile Court, was convicted in 2003 of lying about contacts with his brother and served six months in prison.
Boston attorney Charles Rankin, who represents Finnerty, declined to comment on the disbarment yesterday. Finnerty could not be reached for comment.
On a voice message at the law office on Granite Avenue in Dorchester where he has worked with his son, Finnerty says: "This is Tom Finnerty. I'm retired from the practice of law. If this is a personal call, leave your name and number."
Finnerty drew the attention of a federal grand jury in 2003 when it was investigating whether Whitey Bulger had any contacts with William Bulger or his children.
Dooley recanted his 1998 testimony and acknowledged that John Bulger; Michael Hurley, who is William Bulger's son-in-law; and Kevin Weeks, an associate of Whitey Bulger, were present during the fugitive's 1996 phone call, according to several sources familiar with the probe.
A federal appeals court in 2005 ordered an unnamed lawyer, later identified as Finnerty, to testify before the grand jury and concluded he was involved in an effort "to facilitate corruption and frustration of the grand jury inquiry."
Yesterday Vecchione said the Board of Bar Overseers was alerted to Finnerty's alleged misconduct at the end of March and launched its own investigation.
Shelley Murphy can be reached at shmurphy@globe.com. 