Affidavit depicts pol manipulating levers of power

Dianne Wilkerson, in a campaign call last month, is accused of holding up a Licensing Board raise to extract a liquor license. (Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)

It was a mid-August afternoon on Beacon Hill, typically the time of year when little gets done at the State House. But on this day in 2007, a cadre of powerful officials had gathered in a Senate meeting room to cut a deal to provide a liquor license for a Roxbury nightclub championed by state Senator Dianne Wilkerson.

By the end of the meeting - which included Senate President Therese Murray; Boston City Council President Maureen Feeney; Boston Licensing Board chairman Daniel Pokaski; state Senator Michael Morrissey; and Wilkerson - they had reached an agreement.

Feeney would push legislation for 40 new liquor licenses in Boston through the City Council; Wilkerson would introduce it in the Senate, Murray and Morrissey would ensure its passage; and Pokaski would grant one of the licenses to the Roxbury nightclub, according to the FBI.

The scene, outlined by federal authorities yesterday, depicts political and policy machinations by the powerful City Hall and State House figures working with Wilkerson in her alleged quest to help a nightclub operator. She did not know that the operator was cooperating with the FBI when he paid her what authorities allege were cash bribes.

An FBI affidavit paints a behind-the-scenes portrait of Massachusetts politics rarely seen by the public. The FBI's case portrays a system in which phone calls and pressure from a single, powerful, well-connected state senator got results in Mayor Thomas M. Menino's administration, the City Council, the Legislature, and the Boston Licensing Board.

According to FBI documents, it is also a system in which favors are privately traded, legislation is delayed on officials' whims, threats are leveled, and decisions are made far from public view. According to the FBI, the support of one key legislator, Wilkerson, was for sale.

The Boston Licensing Board, a panel headquartered at Boston City Hall but appointed by the governor to control liquor licenses, issued a coveted beer and wine license at the behest of Wilkerson. Wilkerson told the nightclub operator, who was puzzled by the lack of a public hearing on his license request for the Dejavu club, that the licensing board's proceedings on such matters were "all smoke and mirrors," according to the affidavit.

Other than Wilkerson, no one has been accused of wrongdoing in the case. The FBI is not ruling out further investigations at Boston City Hall. Feeney confirmed that she was interviewed by the FBI yesterday.

"We will, of course, provide any and all information that might support their ongoing investigation," Feeney said. She said Wilkerson had made a "persuasive" argument at the August 2007 meeting for the license for Dejavu, so she agreed to help with the legislation.

Pokaski and Morrissey did not return calls seeking comment. Murray declined to comment, but issued a statement:

"I am just learning about this situation," said the statement issued by Murray spokesman David Falcone. "I won't say or do anything to interfere in this law enforcement investigation. This matter is in the hands of law enforcement, and we will work with them."

Menino, through spokeswoman Dorothy Joyce, said that Wilkerson had committed "an unacceptable breach of trust." But Joyce referred questions about the mayor's own encounters with Wilkerson outlined in the affidavit to the US attorney's office.

Wilkerson's lawyer, speaking on her behalf, denied any wrongdoing. She was released after an appearance in US District Court on $50,000 bail.

According to the affidavit, Wilkerson contacted powerful officials in an effort to manipulate the political system again and again over the course of 18 months. All the while, she was taking thousands of dollars at a time in cash, authorities allege. She told of "calling in chits" with Menino and the Licensing Board and boasted that once 40 new licenses were approved, she would control five of them, authorities alleged.

The quest for the liquor license described by the FBI started in June 2007, after a meeting with the prospective nightclub owner, who was identified as a "cooperating witness."

Two weeks after a June 5 meeting, during which Wilkerson allegedly accepted a $500 cash bribe, she told the witness she had spoken to the mayor and one of his assistants and they agreed to help get a license, the affidavit says.

"We're burning up the phones right now," Wilkerson said, according to the affidavit.

She followed that effort with a letter to the mayor and Pokaski, saying she wanted to "secure a license for Dejavu immediately," the affidavit said.

By the end of July 2007, Wilkerson began applying heavy pressure, the FBI said. She said she was holding up legislation that would grant pay raises to Pokaski and other Licensing Board members until the board agreed to give Dejavu the license, investigators allege.

"He ain't getting paid," Wilkerson told the witness, according to the affidavit.

But to allow for the award of more licenses in Boston would require state legislation, requiring approval by the City Council, mayor, Legislature, and governor.

Wilkerson, according to the affidavit, said that she persuaded Murray to call Feeney, the council president, and that Feeney asked for the meeting at the State House on Aug. 16, at which the deal was struck for the 40 new licenses in Boston.

In an interview yesterday, Feeney said Wilkerson told the group that the Licensing Board discriminated against minorities when it handed out licenses and that they should make sure that Dejavu got one. "When any legislator from the city makes a claim of discrimination, that's something we have to take very seriously," Feeney said yesterday. "Ultimately, that case was persuasive to me, and I agreed to send the legislation to the State House for consideration."

One week after the State House meeting, the Senate passed the legislation granting a 42 percent pay raise to Boston Licensing Board members. Pokaski's salary jumped from roughly $60,000 per year to $85,000.

In another maneuver, she persuaded Morrissey, a powerful committee chairman, to hold up the liquor license measure to allow the nightclub owner to obtain a lease for the bar in Roxbury, the affidavit says.

"I told the committee that . . . I'll let them know when I want them to take a vote," Wilkerson told the witness, the affidavit says.

By March 2008, Dejavu had won a license, even though legislation for the 40 licenses was still pending. How that license was awarded is not explained by the FBI.

A month later, the Boston Licensing Board canceled the license at the request of the licensee because he could not obtain financing, according to board documents.

In the second deal outlined by investigators, Wilkerson was promising action to undercover FBI agents posing as out-of-state developers who wanted to build on a parcel of state-owned land in Roxbury.

Wilkerson told the agents that she had persuaded the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which owned the land, not to lease it to another business, the affidavit says. An agency spokeswoman, Wendy Fox, declined to comment, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.

Wilkerson told the agents posing as developers that she would introduce legislation to award the land directly to them without bidding, the affidavit said.

She said she had secured support in the House for the legislation from the assistant majority leader, who is Byron Rushing.

Rushing did not return a message left seeking comment yesterday.

In June 2008, Wilkerson accepted a $5,000 bribe, according to the FBI. The next month, she sent an e-mail to the undercover agents posing as developers.

"I continue to stand ready to provide whatever additional information you might need," she wrote, according to the affidavit. "I am a firm believer in the notion that you can do good and do well at the same time."

On Sept. 29, Wilkerson introduced a bill to grant the land to the undercover agents posing as developers.

On Oct. 2, she accepted a $10,000 cash payment from the agents posing as developers, saying she needed the funds for her reelection effort, the FBI said.

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