Massachusetts: Finneran will plead guilty
AP reports: Former House Speaker Tom Finneran is expected to plead guilty today to obstruction of justice charges.
The once-powerful Beacon Hill Democrat is accused of lying during his testimony in a voting rights lawsuit. -- WHDH-TV - New England News - Source: Ex-House speaker to plead guilty in redistricting case
And the Boston Globe reports: As former House speaker Thomas M. Finneran heads this morning to federal court, where he is expected to plead guilty to obstruction of justice, he faces the almost certain loss of his $30,000-a-year pension because of a decision last year by the state Supreme Judicial Court.
The state's highest court ruled unanimously in March that Boston Juvenile Court Clerk-Magistrate John P. Bulger forfeited his pension when he admitted that he lied to two federal grand juries investigating the disappearance of his brother, fugitive mobster James J. "Whitey" Bulger.
Alden Bianchi, cochairman of a Boston Bar Association committee on pensions, said Finneran's case appears to be a more obvious violation of the Massachusetts law that bars employees from receiving a pension if convicted of a "criminal offense involving violation of the laws applicable to his office or position." -- Finneran faces loss of state pension