Facing possible expulsion, Wilkerson quits Senate

Above, Dianne Wilkerson left the State House yesterday after submitting her resignation to Senate President Therese Murray. Below, members of the media examined a brief statement handed out by Wilkerson's staff outside her office. (YOON S. BYUN/GLOBE STAFF)

State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, facing open scorn from her colleagues and the possibility of a humiliating vote to strip her of her seat, resigned yesterday from the office she held for nearly 16 years, leaving behind a career punctuated by last month's arrest on federal bribery charges.

Wilkerson submitted a two-sentence letter of resignation to the Senate president, handwritten in cursive on a blank sheet of paper, at 9:45 a.m.

The ramifications, though, were anything but simple. Her departure marks the second Senate resignation in the last five days, both by liberal Democrats. Combined, they represent the first resignations tied to criminal investigations in more than three decades. And her departure leaves the chamber without a black member.

Senate President Therese Murray, in a dramatic speech yesterday on the Senate floor designed to soothe a chamber reeling from the scandals, urged lawmakers to "commit ourselves to ensuring the public trust."

"And though one person may cast a temporary shadow, we are too strong, too determined, and too righteous as a collective body to allow any doubt to linger," Murray said. "I don't know if we will ever hear an apology from those who should offer one. . . . I hope we do someday."

If Wilkerson had not resigned, the full Senate was prepared to meet today for an extraordinary session to vote on whether to expel her from the Senate or suspend her without pay.

Wilkerson arrived at the State House a little before noon yesterday for the first time since her October arrest. When she was seen stepping out of an elevator on the third floor, she quickly walked toward her office, waved off reporters' questions, and disappeared behind her locked office door.

Several hours later, a Wilkerson staff member issued a typed statement on her Senate letterhead acknowledging that she had resigned. "There will be no further comments today on this matter," the statement read.

Around 2 p.m., someone took food into the office from the 21st Amendment, a Beacon Hill bar and restaurant. Not until 6 p.m. did she emerge from her office with four beefy men surrounding her. Wearing a red scarf and green turtleneck, she walked, expressionless and wordless, through a gantlet of reporters. She descended in an elevator, got into a blue van, and was whisked away from the State House.

She resigned with just seven weeks left in her term and just hours before the Senate was expected to receive a report from the Senate Ethics Committee recommending how the Senate should decide her fate.

It was the second resignation in five days by a member of the Senate, a period that has rocked members of the usually collegial body. Never before have two members resigned in a legislative session, much less in a period of less than a week.

"Everybody is breathing a sigh of relief," said Senate minority leader Richard R. Tisei, a Wakefield Republican. "Now that Senator Marzilli and Senator Wilkerson have both left the Senate, we can start to move on and hopefully restore people's confidence in this institution."

Senator J. James Marzilli abruptly resigned last Friday, four months after he was indicted on charges of accosting four women in downtown Lowell.

Until this year, the last time a state senator resigned as a result of a criminal investigation was 1977, when Ronald MacKenzie, a Republican from Burlington, gave up his seat because of a bribery scandal.

Wilkerson was the Senate's only black senator and a civil rights advocate who remained popular in her Boston district despite a string of ethical and legal problems over the years. But that support finally evaporated - even a group of neighborhood clergy members pushed her to resign - after her arrest, which came complete with startling images from an FBI undercover operation that showed her allegedly accepting cash bribes. In one frame, she was lifting her top to conceal money in her bra.

Wilkerson's decided to step down a day after she was indicted by a federal grand jury on eight counts of attempted extortion stemming from the undercover operation. The Roxbury Democrat is accused of accepting $23,500 in bribes to help secure a liquor license for a nightclub in her district and to push legislation paving the way for a development in Roxbury.

If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine on each of the eight charges. The indictment also seeks the return of the $23,500 that a cooperating witness and undercover agents allegedly made to Wilkerson.

In the fallout after her arrest, Wilkerson resisted pressure to step down. When her colleagues in the Senate passed a unanimous resolution Oct. 30, asking her to resign immediately, Wilkerson said it was "unreasonable."

After losing her reelection bid to Democratic rival Sonia Chang-Díaz, Wilkerson promised on Nov. 5 to resign "as soon as humanly and responsibly possible," but she took no concrete steps to leave.

The federal grand jury indictment Tuesday ratcheted up the pressure another notch.

The Senate's six-member Ethics Committee was prepared to issue a report yesterday taking potentially punitive action against Wilkerson. Her colleagues could have voted to suspend her $1,400 weekly pay check or expel her from the Senate.

Lawmakers would not discuss what the committee was planning to recommend, saying that the deliberations were private and that her resignation meant no further action was needed. It was unclear last night whether the report would be released.

While Beacon Hill leaders hoped that Wilkerson's resignation closed a dark period for state politics, signs abound that other officials could be involved. Prosecutors have blanketed the State House and City Hall with subpoenas and strongly hinted that more charges are possible.

A grand jury subpoena obtained by the Globe last month requested documents from several legislators, including Murray, the Senate president, and a separate subpoena asked for e-mails from some of the state's most prominent politicians.

Separately, several House lawmakers - most prominently, House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi - face ongoing investigations by multiple agencies over business deals and connections with lobbyists.

"It's all just added to this overall perception problem that things were a little bit out of control from an ethical standpoint," said Senator Robert L. Hedlund, a Republican from Weymouth. "There's a long way to go."

Wilkerson, a former lawyer for the NAACP and a single mother who once lived on welfare, had a compelling life story that helped catapult her into the Senate and deep into the political mix as a possible future congresswoman or Boston mayor. She pulled off a surprising victory against a veteran politician in 1992, winning by using the slogan, "We Can Do Better."

While taking on causes of social, racial, and economic justice, she also developed a track record of ethical and financial lapses. She defaulted on loans, avoided parking tickets, and neglected her income taxes.

Many overlooked her failings because of her passionate voice on issues such as same-sex marriage and lauded her mastery of the mechanics of Beacon Hill.

Jonathan Saltzman and Andrew Ryan of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Jeannie Nuss contributed to this report. Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.