Council to discuss options on Turner

Embattled member to call on supporters

YEARS OF SERVICE Turner has served on the Council for five terms. The Harvard graduate gained prominence in the 1960s.

The City Council will hold a special meeting today to consider whether to oust Councilor Chuck Turner following last week's allegations that he pocketed a $1,000 payment from a nightclub operator and lied to federal agents.

But before they meet, Turner plans to hold a news conference on the steps of City Hall to make his case for why he is innocent and should retain his seat on the council, according to his lawyer. He will call on his supporters to accompany him into the council chambers.

Measures the councilors will consider include stripping Turner of his position, passing a resolution urging him to resign, censuring him, or taking no action until his case is tried, City Council officials said.

"The purpose of the meeting is to discuss our options," said Justin Holmes, a spokesman for Council president Maureen Feeney, who called for the special closed-door meeting. "We have no precedent in recent City Council history for a councilor being accused of something like this."

He said councilors are awaiting advice from city attorneys and the council's re search staff on whether they have legal authority to remove Turner from office. On Friday, Feeney stripped Turner of his committee assignments, including his chairmanship of committees on education and human rights.

Turner, who did not return calls, told WHDH-TV over the weekend that federal officials were acting as "part of a sting operation in order to try and entrap" him in August, when he allegedly accepted cash from an undercover agent working with the FBI as part of a public corruption probe. Former state Senator Dianne Wilkerson, who resigned last week, has been accused of accepting payments from the same businessman, who was seeking help in obtaining a liquor license.

"What happened to innocent until proven guilty?" asked Barry P. Wilson, a Boston attorney representing Turner.

"This is out of control - out of control. They have no right to do this. This is totally out of character. Does any of them know Chuck Turner?"

Wilson said Turner would be likely to sue if the council voted to remove him from office. "This is beyond the pale of understanding," Wilson said. "It's just another indication of the fact that they don't like Chuck Turner, because he's a thorn in their side and represents all the poor, downtrodden, oppressed people. He will fight this."

Councilor John Tobin questioned the wisdom of the meeting and said he won't attend. He compared the allegations to a "bomb in our backyard" and called it "an extremely uncomfortable situation." The council should wait for the courts to act, he said.

"This is a no-win situation that could blow up in our faces," Tobin said. "If there's no action taken, it will look like we're protecting one of our own. If we do take action, he could take us to court, and I'm not sure we have the authority to take action."

Many councilors did not return calls for comment yesterday.

But in a statement yesterday, Councilor Michael Flaherty said he will not support any effort to remove Turner from the council. "We cannot tolerate corruption in Boston City Hall," he said. "At the moment, however, there is only an allegation of corruption." The Boston City Council, he said, is "not a law enforcement agency and most certainly not a court of law."

Veterans of the City Council said they can't recall any similar allegations befalling a councilor. They said it is unlikely that any city rules outline how the council should respond to such serious charges against one of its members.

Given the lack of a local precedent, Lawrence S. DiCara, a former City Council president who is now a partner at the Nixon Peabody law firm in Boston, suggested that councilors look to a 1969 ruling by the Supreme Court for guidance.

In that case, the justices ruled that Adam Clayton Powell Jr., a New York congressman who was embroiled in several scandals, could not be excluded from the House of Representatives after he was elected. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that "a fundamental principle of our representative democracy is, in Hamilton's words, 'that the people should choose whom they please to govern them.' "

After a hearing in US District Court in Worcester Friday, Turner used similar language, saying that the City Council has no authority on whether he can retain his position. "The only people who can make the decision whether I serve is my constituents," he said. "I am going to be back at work Monday."

But while the Supreme Court ruled that the House had improperly "excluded" Powell from his seat in Congress, they found that the Constitution allowed for members of the House to be "expelled" if two-thirds of them voted to remove him from office.

"In more than 40 years since I've been following the City Council, I've never seen anything like this," DiCara said. "The question is whether the Powell case would apply to a municipal body. I don't know that it does, but I think a good rule of thumb would be for the Council to act cautiously. That means waiting until there's an indictment in place before taking too many steps."

After Turner's arrest on Friday, law enforcement officials said their investigation will continue and could result in more arrests. The investigation, which officials said includes more than 150 recordings by undercover agents, has so far included allegations of attempted extortion, political favors, and backroom deals.

Wilkerson, who was arrested Oct. 28, didn't resign her Senate seat until last Wednesday after she came under intense pressure from her colleagues.

Turner has served on the Council for five terms. The Harvard graduate gained prominence in the 1960s as a local community organizer.

In the interview broadcast over the weekend on WHDH-TV, Turner said the US Attorney's Office is "wasting the taxpayer's money."

"The only recourse to protect a reputation that I have struggled to build over this last 45 years, a reputation of integrity, is to go on the defensive," he said.

David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com.