Jerome notified me of the report on MSNBC that reads: ”
“A former FBI agent accused of lying during Boston gangster James ‘‘Whitey’’ Bulger’s trial is expected to plead guilty to perjury charges Monday. Robert Fitzpatrick is slated to appear Monday afternoon in US District Court in Boston for a change-of-plea hearing.”
I went to the trial docket. Fitzpatrick did plead guilty to all (6) counts of perjury and all (6) counts of obstruction of justice today before Judge Saylor.
The agreed disposition is that Fitpatrick will be put on probation for 24 months, he will pay a fine of $12,500, pay some court special assessment of $1,200 and waive his right to appeal. Consideration has been given to him because of his age and poor physical condition.
Doesn’t it all seem like a charade? Why was he indicted in the first place if this is all that was going to happen? Doesn’t the prosecutor have anything better to do? Send in the clowns!
I’m crushed. I so thought Fitzpatrick would push back against Wyshak and go down swinging. He was a golden glove boxer. A tough guy. He told me he would not give up.
The whole thing was about time and face. Wyshak acting like the Mafia is known to do gave Fitzpatrick an offer he could not refuse. He’ll do no time.
I have written before about this case. The matters involved in Fitzpatrick’s perjury charge were not material to the trial. Fitzpatrick could have won if he dared risk doing time. Who in his shoes at his age would want to take the risk even though he knows he is innocent.
Wyshak on the other hand knew he could very well have lost. He had to climb down from his high horse and offer Fitzpatrick the deal to save his face. He became so desperate to do this he agreed to a sentence that makes a mockery of the whole situation.
I cannot be too critical of Fitzpatrick. He’s in his middle seventies and probably got the word back if he went to trial then he would be hammered. You know the predicament you are in when you are indicted by the Boston federal prosecutors. You plead guilty and you get a slap on the hand; you go to trial and you do a lot of time. It is a craven system where one is punished for exercising the right to trial. What kind of right is that when you use it you suffer harshly for doing so?
The judges go along with it. It makes their work easier. Everyone who works in the waterfront courthouse on the government payroll comes out happy. Little do they care that an innocent person is forced to admit wrongdoing to stay on the street.
Time to create a school for Judges
where someone would major in that area.
see
http://boydownthelane.com
This is like the bloody Twilight Zone, everything is ass-backwards. When it is all finalized, this will be impossible to explain to future generations. Johnny Murderman, Pat Nee, Jimmy Murderman, all free in society, while Greig, Fitz, Connolly prosecuted by Wyshak, and not in the interest of real justice. This is like a sick game for Wyshak and he loves every second of it. Freddy, why is Pat Nee free? just answer that one question????
File Under : EXTRAVAGANT CLAIMS JUMPING by Wyshak.
You cannot have it both ways. You have, quite rightly, scoffed at, derided, and publicly challenged Bob Fitzpatrick to defend the veracity of his ” Product. ” You have done that on this blog. To be kvetching about his being officially called on the mat, as a former ranking federal agent, for bold assertions, some true, others not, that he made during a showcase federal trial, seems to lack … gravitas .
Fred Wyshak is an ogre mayhaps, but no one has ever called him a dummy. The Fitzpatrick gambit was a prophylactic measure by his office designed to forestall any future ” Fitzy Crime Thrillers, ” and generally remind the Corps that having once worn J.Edgar Hoover’s brand of tap shoes that there is a line that you toe until you are lowered into the ground.
For the rest, Bob Fittzpatrick is an extremely likeable, albeit somewhat grandstanding at times, character. I am happy that his travails Federale have finished in a humane fashion. I wish him improved health and the consolation that many, including myself, consider his professional FBI career an honorable one !!!
John:
You miss the point. I have criticized Fitpatrick’s book especially the part where he tells of meeting with Bill Bulger which made no sense. He freely attended the meeting with him, said Bill was gracious and the meeting went great, but said Bill was all the time sending him some type of occult message not to mess with Whitey. It was all weird stuff. Then, he claimed to do things that he did not do like it was he who took down the Angiulo brothers when he wasn’t in Boston at the time the wiretap that did it was done; and his story about the arrest of Gerry and his attacks on O’Sullivan were all matters that I found strange so I called him on them.
When he testified I was ready to see him fried on cross-examination by prosecutors for what he wrote in his book. He avoided that by saying his book was a memoir, things he remembered and not as they actually happened. He was able to get by pretty well as a witness outfoxing the prosecutor whose cross-examination was somewhat inept. That, of course, was the reason for the indictment because he embarrassed them. As you know to have perjury the lie must be to a material matter at issue at trial and whether, for example, Fitzpatrick found the MLK rifle had nothing to do with the matters Whitey was under indictment for.
I can think a guy is not being straightforward and exaggerating his background while at the same time find the idea of indicting him repulsive. Just like I think both Connolly and Greig deserves some type of punishment but at the same time believing the punishment they receive is grossly disproportionate to the crimes they committed.
Indicting Fitzpatrick for 6 counts of perjury and 6 counts of obstruction of justice had nothing to do with justice as I understand it but a prosecutor’s personal pique. It was plainly wrong. If you think putting someone in the position of caused him much mental suffering, and loss of large amounts of money in lawyer’s fees, and eventually being publicly humbled with no way to show the whole affair is a farce is only “being called on the mat” then we see things very differently.
You then suggest that Wyshak used the indictment to send the message to the FBI agents that none better come in and testify against him again or they will also be indicted. You suggest they must toe Wyshak’s view of the truth even though they know it to be false. Sadly, I agree. That should bother everyone but as we know it doesn’t because FBI agents have often testified to the facts the prosecutor wants them to tell; or they come with facts of their own making and have no trouble testifying to them.
Although I have written critically about Fitzpatrick I always believed his ordeal in this matter was far beyond the pale. The guy did serve our country well in the FBI which turned on him years ago because Fitpatrick thought it was on the level. I too am glad it is behind him.
“Fitzpatrick said that he was surprised by Bulger’s claim and later filed a report recommending that the FBI drop Bulger as an informant.”
I am reminded of what an attorney once said. “An innocent person never stops fighting.”
If Fitzpatrick offered his report as evidence, he could have fought or mitigated some of the charges.
Where is that report?
[email protected]
My sister, a rehabilitated attorney, wrote me….Anyone who thinks innocent people don’t take plea deals is living in lala land. All the feds are good for is intimidating their own citizens. And at that they have become expert. They have us where they want us.
Bill:
Your sister is absolutely right. It is not only that the person can avoid going to the can by pleading; the cost of a good attorney in federal court is astronomical and Fitzpatrick had one who has a very good reputation. Maybe even with the street deal he wanted to fight on but could not afford it. One thing is clear is that this is a travesty.
Doug:
For some reason Fitzpatrick did not keep a copy and no one ever found such a report. In other words it went missing if it was ever filed.
For those not in the know, under that circumstance, the plea deal was his best option.
[email protected]
I know and respect Bob..had worked alongside him when we both were helping Fideliy Investments …a good man….this is disgusting..the feds should be ashamed
Bill:
Absolutely right about the the feds. Can you even think of any purpose of putting a man like Fitzpatrick on probation? The charges never should have been brought; if they were serious enough to bring then they should have acted as though that was the case and not end it with a meaningless probation.