Wilkerson, Turner plead not guilty

Supporters jam arraignment on bribery charges

Councilor Chuck Turner left federal court in Boston yesterday after pleading not guilty to five felony counts. (WINSLOW TOWNSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

In a federal courtroom overflowing with supporters, Councilor Chuck Turner and former state senator Dianne Wilkerson pleaded not guilty yesterday to conspiracy and extortion charges stemming from an FBI bribery investigation.

Most of the 200 people who came to US District Court in Boston for the five-minute hearing were there on behalf of Turner, who seemed at ease as he laughed with his lawyer, Barry P. Wilson, before the arraignment began. When Turner strode down the hallway after entering his not-guilty plea, the crowd parted and chanted, "Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!"

Wilkerson struck a more subdued pose in court, but she smiled at some of the spectators she recognized in the gallery. Standing outside the courtroom in a mist afterward, Cornelius Reddick, 66, told the former Roxbury lawmaker, "We love you; we love you."

Wilkerson smiled and replied, "I love you, too."

After the hearing, Turner refused to discuss comments he made to the Associated Press earlier in the day, when he had said that prosecutors may have faked a surveillance photograph that allegedly showed him accepting a $1,000 cash bribe from a businessman who was working with the FBI.

When asked about the allegation, Turner kept his lips closed and pointed to his lawyer, who held an impromptu press conference.

"My position is I have no idea about what [the photograph] is showing," the gravel-voiced Wilson said. "All I can say is that I trust Chuck Turner. I don't trust the FBI."

Turner, a 68-year-old Green-Rainbow Party member, pleaded not guilty to five felonies: one count of conspiracy to extort, one count of attempted extortion, and three counts of making false statements to FBI agents.

Wilson said he expected the US attorney's office to bring more charges against his client, as the lawyer belittled the sting in which Turner was accused of accepting the bribe and lying about it to FBI agents afterward.

"They do an 18-month investigation for this?" said Wilson, who punctuated the end of the sentence with a profanity. "It's rather pathetic, isn't it?"

Wilkerson, a 53-year-old Democrat, pleaded not guilty to nine felonies: eight counts of attempted extortion and one count of conspiracy to extort. Authorities say she took $23,500 in bribes from the same businessman who allegedly paid Turner.

She had been arraigned on the eight extortion charges Monday before US Magistrate Judge Timothy S. Hillman. But she had to go through the process again yesterday, after a federal grand jury added a conspiracy charge Tuesday, the day it also indicted Turner. Both politicians remain free on bond.

Earlier yesterday, Turner told the Associated Press that prosecutors may have faked a photograph that authorities said was taken from a surveillance camera. The photo purportedly shows Turner taking $1,000 in folded bills from a cooperating witness in his Roxbury office on Aug. 3, 2007, in exchange for help in securing a liquor license for a Roxbury nightclub.

"I've seen some grainy photographs," Turner told the Associated Press. "I don't know if that's me. They doctor photographs. I know it looks something like me, but the reality is I haven't seen the real photo. There hasn't been an analysis done on the photographs."

Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, declined to comment on Turner's allegations.

Yesterday afternoon, Turner issued a 2,200-word package of press releases that included some of his most pointed criticism of the FBI. Turner, whose supporters yesterday included many people in their 50s and 60s, said he came of age in the 1960s and said that J. Edgar Hoover's FBI subverted the constitutional rights of people seeking justice.

"Yes, J. Edgar is dead, but I believe his spirit lingers on," Turner said in the news release.

The releases also suggest that the FBI targeted him because he has been an outspoken critic of the agency. In challenging the merits of the FBI investigation, he and his advocates have also specifically pointed to a Globe article last month about the cooperating witness in the case.

Ron Wilburn acknowledged in the article that he was the unnamed businessman described in a 32-page FBI affidavit who allegedly handed Wilkerson and Turner wads of cash.

In the interview with the Globe, Wilburn said the affidavit "speaks for itself," adding, "It reads like the script of a Spike Lee movie."

Wilburn disputed one allegation made by the FBI, that he told investigators that Wilkerson routinely took payments from people having business before the Senate. Wilburn told the Globe that he had no such knowledge.

Turner and his supporters have seized on that inconsistency to contend that the FBI is untrustworthy.

Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.