MA State Senator faces corruption charges...caught on camera stuffing bra with alleged bribery money
This FBI surveillance photograph captures her allegedly stuffing her bra with $1,000 during a meeting with an informant last summer at a Massachusetts restaurant. In all, the alleged bribes totaled over $20,000.
According to the Boston Globe:
"The Democratic lawmaker, arrested this morning after an 18-month undercover investigation by Boston Police and the FBI, allegedly accepted cash payoffs that ranged from $500 to $10,000 to help a nightclub secure a liquor license and to assist a private developer who wanted to build on state land.
Wilkerson allegedly tried to influence legislation in the state Senate as recently as last week to help the developer in the Crosstown section of Roxbury, near the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue."
Her attorney says:
""As every defendant, Sen. Dianne Wilkerson is entitled to the presumption of innocence....Despite the pictures that the US Attorney has chosen to show just one week before the election ... there is a context to every one of the interactions you have been told about. There is something that happens before. There is something that happens after that has not been included in what you've been shown. You will learn that when there is a trial.''"
The 15 month investigation involved one cooperating witness and three FBI agents. There is just too much too list that they have on her detailed in a 32 page affidavit. She faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of charges.
More from the Globe:
"Wilkerson has represented Roxbury since first winning election in 1992, but lost the Democratic primary to Sonia Chang-Diaz last month. Wilkerson has been mounting a write-in campaign to retain her seat.
In her early years at the State House, Wilkerson, a lawyer who is the first black woman elected to the state Senate, was seen as a rising star who might even have a shot at Congress." READ MORE...
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