Chuck Turner, Prisoner of War

The scene at Northeastern Law School yesterday - as Chuck Turner gave his last speech before starting a three year term in federal prison - was sad on a number of levels. First, NU students did a very poor job of organizing the event - with the result that over 100 people were forced to leave the building where the event was being held, after a number of reasonable proposals to provide overflow space or use another facility on the large campus were rebuffed by the students and a couple of administrators who happened to be on hand. Second, most of the Boston press corps was also kept out of the event - this despite my public plea on behalf of the assembled journalists pointing out that failing to let us in was effectively preventing a large audience from being aware of the event at all - plus making the unfortunate treatment of the press part of the few stories that did ultimately get produced.

Third, and most importantly, Turner shouldn't be going to jail at all. This publication and others have already spilled a lot of digital ink explaining the problems with the Feds' case against the former Boston City Councilor; so I won't rehash all that in this editorial (though you can feel free to take a look at my most recent editorial on the matter). Suffice to say that it was painful to watch the reaction of the 30 or so people who waited out in the cold for over two hours when Turner finally emerged from the building and spoke to them and the remaining press. Turner kept his cool as he addressed supporters and reporters one final time, but onlookers were upset - some, as can been seen in one of my photos of the scene, were crying.

After talking for a few minutes, Turner started gradually moving towards his car - stopping to hug and chat with friends and well-wishers as he went. Then he walked over to his car flanked by a couple of TV cameras. And that was that.

Today, as he is transported to a minimum security prison in West Virginia, Turner's supporters released the text of the his Northeastern talk. So, I'll run it here in the public interest. Note that his prison address is listed at the conclusion of his remarks. Incidentally, after quite a bit of wrangling, Boston Herald photographer Christopher Evans managed to get into the event - and graciously sent along a couple of photos that I've included below.

Prisoner of War:

Tomorrow I begin a three year sentence in the Hazelton Federal Prison in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia. The sentence is based on the jury’s acceptance of the prosecution accusation that I had accepted a $1000 to file a hearing order re discrimination in the issuance of liquor licenses. It is also based on three charges that I lied to the FBI officials when they asked three different questions re my interactions with their agent.

In addition, to these counts at the sentencing the prosecutor and judge agreed without a jury that I had perjured myself when I testified that I did not remember their agent and his actions. By charging me with perjury, they justified a three year sentence despite the fact that the conviction was my first offense and had been set up the US prosecutor.

My case represents yet another example of the historical use of U.S prosecutorial, investigative, and judicial powers to achieve political objectives. A cursory examination of US history will show that the legal system has been used to give those in control a tool to eliminate those political opposition, going back to the passage of the Alien and Sedition Act, passed in 1791 two years after the Constitution was ratified.

Boston Herald POOL PHOTO/Christopher Evans

J.Edgar Hoover became a household word through his organizing of an army of lawyers, called the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These G-men were armed with investigative powers enabling to harass and intimidate those who Hoover and his allies saw as threats. While the targeting of the Black movement is clear, we need to recognize that this flagrant use of power was turned on anyone who dissented.

The sting operation, targeting of Senator Wilkerson and I, initiated by former US Attorney Sullivan is part of that same pattern. That is, the sting operation initiated by Sullivan was focused on taking two strong, vocal Black advocates out of action; it was not about corruption in the issuing of liquor licenses. In my case, there had never been any allegations of improper financial actions so there was no legal justification for them even instituting the sting.

Also, as the prosecution’s chief agent, Ron Wilburn, has publicly stated if you are serious about weeding out corruption in the issuing of liquor licenses in Boston, your investigation will have to have a wider focus than two Black politicians who probably have fewer liquor licenses in their districts than in any other districts in the City. I have always believed that Sullivan’s key personal motivation for the sting was his desire as a career politician to run for future office and his belief that getting rid of us would be a political feather in his cap in this state, particularly if he ran against Governor Patrick.

To thoroughly explore the motivations of US Atty Sullivan, however, you have to put his actions in the context of a Bush administration which had fired through the collusion of Karl Rove and the US Attorney General Gonzales eight US Atty Generals less than a year before the MA US Prosecutor’s office initiated their sting focused on Senator Wilkerson and I. In fact, I have received reports that the US Attorney General met with Sullivan here in Boston just prior to the signing of the Wilburn contract. I also think that it is significant that on the day, US Atty Sullivan resigned in March 2008, he announced that he was opening a law office in Boston with his partner, John “Patriot Act” Ashcroft who opened offices in Dallas, Houston, and St. Louis in that same month, also headed by former US Attorneys.

While I can’t speak to the interests of the Bush administration in removing the Senator, I think their targeting me in 2007 was due to my sponsoring that year a resolution that the Boston City Council approved 13 to 0, instructing the MA Congressional delegation to initiate action within Congress to withdraw our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and bring the money being spent on these wars back to the US to support the rebuilding of Boston and other urban areas.

However, I believe they thought they could use their connections with the press and the City Council to remove me without going through the process of an expensive court action. Therefore, two hours after I was arrested at City Hall at approximately 6 a.m., pictures were sent around the country allegedly showing me accepting a bribe that I had extorted from the FBI agent. These pictures were taken by the FBI/MA US Prosecutor agent, Ron Wilburn, whom they had paid $30,000 to take down the Senator and I.

At noon on the same day while I sat in a federal jail in Worcester waiting to find out why I was arrested, City Councilor Feeney after consulting with Mayor’s lawyer, William Sinnott and others, announced she was stripping me of my committee chairmanships and memberships. She also announced that there would be a hearing with the Council regarding my fate on the next business day. However, when five hundred people rallied to attend the hearing, Councilor Feeney called it off and said that she would await my indictment before taking action.

US Atty Sullivan made it clear in his press conference on the day of my arrest that he was going to use all his resources to try to force me off the Council and achieve his objective of silencing me. However, his plan backfired in that from the moment, I walked out of the Worcester Court on the day of my arraignment, I loudly and strongly proclaimed my innocence. My lawyers and others warned me that it would be best to keep my mouth shut and leave the work to them.

While that strategy had a logic to it, as a sitting City Councilor who planned to run the following year, I believed I had no alternative but to fight back verbally. So during the month following my arrest, I staged a number of rallies to proclaim my innocence. One of these rallies even included former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who in his capacity as President of the Internal Action Center came to Boston to support my innocence.

By January 5, 2010, less than two months after I was arrested Atty Sullivan began to realize that he was losing the battle in the Court of public opinion and initiated his next action to silence me by having his agent, AUSA John McNeil, file a motion to require that before his office would share any of “their evidence” with my lawyer, I would have to sign “gag” order agreeing not to reveal any information received from them. Since I saw this as a trap to put me in jail as I spoke publicly about my innocence, I refused to accept the evidence after the judge granted the motion.

Sullivan’s next ploy was to file a motion to require that I take the evidence whether I wanted to do it or not. Since I saw this as an abuse of power to which I would not submit, I told my lawyers to send back the evidence the US Atty’s office sent it. My position was that I was willing to go to jail in defense of my first amendment rights.

Boston Herald POOL PHOTO/Christopher Evans

While the judge granted the motion that I had to take the evidence, they did not move to find me in contempt of court even though I refused to take it. This dance regarding the gag order and my refusal to take their “evidence” continued until I was returned to office with an over 60% plurality and agreed to take the evidence even with their gag order since the Court of Public Opinion in my district had spoken in support of me through the election.

Since my purpose is not to retry the case this evening, I am not going to go through my analysis of the evidence. However, during the next month, I will put on paper my analysis of their evidence and why I believe that it proves that I am in fact innocent. This paper and other reflections can be accessed at SupportChuckTurner.com and the national on line newspaper, Black Commentator. com. I also suggest getting a copy of Shirley Kressel’s article on my innocence in a recent issue of the South End News.

Before moving to my recommendations on actions to curb the prosecutorial abuse/terrorism that we see at all levels of the American criminal justice system, let me share the words of MA Asst US Atty McNeil’s statement in his sentencing memorandum that shows his indignation at my thinking that I had freedom of speech despite the fact that they had accused me of a crime.

As McNeil said in his sentencing memorandum filed on January 20th of this year,

“Turner’s conduct has been the antithesis of acceptance of responsibility. Instead, his conduct has affirmatively promoted disrespect for the law, has demeaned the seriousness of his offense, has debased his public office, and has eroded the public’s trust in law enforcement and the criminal justice system

Mc Neil continues, “Turner’s calculated and persistent attacks on local and federal law enforcement agencies, designed to deflect attention from his own corrupt conduct, have been corrosive to respect for important public institutions and the rule of law. From the day he was confronted with his crime, Turner has engaged in an incendiary campaign of misinformation, obfuscation and blame.” (McNeil then has a footnote referencing statements I had made in the papers regarding their legal assault on me)

The question for us as organizers is what are we going to do to stop the prosecutorial abuse not only here but also across the country at all levels of the system. Harvey Silverglate’s book, Three Felonies a Day provides excellent documentation of this prosecutorial misconduct run rampant.

Our first step here in Boston should be to support the call for action that will be made by Laila Murad on behalf of the Coalition sponsoring this forum. I fully support their idea of calling organizations together in two weeks to begin planning hearings that can take place in the summer to further expose the injustices at the MA Justice Department.

I also think that we need to study the Grand Jury system that gives inordinate power to prosecutors at all levels of the criminal justice system. We can not afford to allow the prosecutors to continue to have a compliant tool that makes it almost impossible to avoid indictments initiated by the prosecutors.

Another reform that we need to explore is the limitation of information that the prosecutors can publicly reveal and penalties for the media that go beyond the guidelines. While I support the general principal of the public’s right to know, I do not feel that prosecutors should have the right to try cases publicly before the defendant’s lawyer even has the basic evidence being used to bring an indictment.

I believe that we also have to pull the cloak off the federal and state prosecutors who are initiating these inappropriate legal actions. I am fascinated that among progressive we talk about FBI actions in various locations but rarely focus on the prosecutors who actually have the power to direct the focus of the FBI’s action. In we continue to allow the prosecutors to operate under the cloak of darkness we will continue to be plagued by their actions.

Finally, we have to recognize that if we are going to build a country that our children and our children’s children can respect and appreciate, we have to find a way to make justice the hallmark of our criminal justice system, and work to eliminate the political .0.expediency that hypocritically parades itself within the system as justice.

Those who wish to continue this discussion can write to me at the Hazelwood Penitentiary, P.O. Box 2000, Bruceton Mills, West Virginia 26525.

Jason Pramas is Editor/Publisher of Open Media Boston