Senate bars Wilkerson from office after she makes surprise appearance

A SENATOR'S FALL Judge Timothy S. Hillman found that Dianne Wilkerson (left) is indigent and appointed Max D. Stern as her lawyer.

Senate President Therese Murray yesterday ordered former state Senator Dianne Wilkerson's office to be locked after Wilkerson made a surprise appearance there, even though she resigned last week.

Wilkerson's former five-member staff - which remains on the payroll but now reports to the Senate president - will be moved into the basement of the State House, to work temporarily on any district issues until the new senator assumes office.

"We understood from her attorney that she would give advance notice to finish going through her files and do so on weekends, so as not to be disruptive," said Murray's spokesman, David Falcone. "No one was aware that she was coming to the State House today."

The Senate president ordered Wilkerson to remove as many things as possible before the office was locked at the end of the day and to turn in all of her keys. If she still needs to enter the office, her lawyer will have to arrange a time with the Senate president's office.

Several former staff members yesterday were working in Wilkerson's office. They confirmed that Wilkerson was also working inside, but she declined to comment.

"There's a lot of things to go through," said an aide, who declined to provide his name.

An industrial-size trash can full of papers could be seen inside the door. In another office she used across the hallway, documents and boxes were piled high atop a desk.

Wilkerson resigned last week from the office she held for nearly 16 years, stepping down a day after she was indicted by a federal grand jury on eight counts of attempted extortion stemming from an undercover FBI 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 for a development on state land in Roxbury.

The charges against her - which were accompanied by surveillance photographs of her allegedly accepting bribes at restaurants around Beacon Hill - infuriated her Senate colleagues.

It was the second recent resignation by a member of the Senate. Senator J. James Marzilli resigned last Friday, four months after he was indicted on charges of accosting four women in downtown Lowell.

Three former staff members of the Arlington Democrat are still working inside the fifth-floor office he used to work in, but they now report to the Senate president. His name has been removed from the door, which now says "Office of the 4th Middlesex District."

Once Wilkerson's office is cleared of her items, it will be prepared for January, when senators begin the biennial rite of scouring for offices with more space and better views. Wilkerson will be replaced by Sonia Chang-Diaz, who defeated her in the Democratic primary and won the Nov. 5 election.

Also yesterday, US Magistrate Judge Timothy S. Hillman found that Wilkerson is indigent and appointed Max D. Stern of Boston as her publicly funded lawyer. Stern has represented Wilkerson on other legal matters and appeared with her in US District Court in Boston as a privately retained attorney on Oct. 28, the day of her arrest. On Nov. 14, Wilkerson filed to have the court appoint Stern as a taxpayer-funded lawyer because she said she could not afford him.

Hillman said in an order yesterday that "it would not be economical or efficient to appoint a new counsel" who was unfamiliar with the case and that doing so would "result in a significant delay in the resolution of the case."

Stern, who is on a list of private lawyers who take federal court appointments, will be paid the standard hourly rate of $100, believed to be considerably less than he would make as a privately retained lawyer.

Hillman based his order on sealed financial affidavits filled out by Wilkerson. He said she had failed to attest to their truthfulness by signing them under pains and penalty of perjury. He directed her to refile the financial forms by Friday and sign each page. Stern said in a brief interview that the signature lapse was an oversight. "We filled out everything we thought needed to be filled out," he said.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.