The Boston U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz mentioned in an indictment against Teamsters Local 25 that “a representative from the City of Boston” had called two restaurants to tell them that they would be picketed if they let “Top Chef” film in their locations. These businesses elected to cancel their deals in order to avoid the picketing. No one has said that the call, the threat of picketing, or the cancellation violated any criminal laws.
The words were put in the indictment as far as I can see for the sole purpose of providing Ortiz a sound bite for her press conference. She would pontificate in front of the media that Local 25 “chased” the reality television show out of Boston which it didn’t because it had already filmed at other Boston sites.
But those words have been turned around in the local media to suggest Mayor Marty Walsh did something wrong for which he owes the people of Boston an explanation.
One thing we know is that Ortiz knows who made the call to the restaurant. Why she kept it a secret rather than naming the person is a mystery. Was it her intent to cast a bad light on the mayor or others who she knew did nothing wrong to cause a scandal? If so, she has well succeeded.
After the indictment came down, an editorial was written about it that focused on Mayor Walsh. It agreed nothing illegal was done but implied otherwise. In the meantime Walsh had panicked and hired a former federal prosecutor who spent over twenty years in the Boston U.S. attorney’s office. I wrote that was a mistake. By doing it Walsh was acting as if there was something wrong after all.
As predicted, the Globe and Herald would say that Walsh “lawyered up” which is often taken as meaning he is hiding behind his lawyers. The people then ask why is he hiding?
To compound his error, Walsh’s spokesperson and his lawyer Kelly suggest one of the reasons for Kelly’s hiring is to interact with the federal prosecutors. One naturally wonders why is that necessary if there is no allegation of wrongdoing. Or, is there, as Globe columnist Shirley Leung wrote a federal investigation going on? If there is has a crime been committed?
Walsh now won’t comment on anything according to Leung saying it’s a “legal matter“making it seem there is a legitimate investigation going on. That’s another mistake. It is a political matter. He should nip the whole thing in the bud, identify the caller, take appropriate action if anything needs to be done, and put this behind him.
That he isn’t doing this makes me wonder if I am being naive when I think no crime has been committed by him. You see how Walsh is playing into the idea he did something wrong. Whoever is advising him is sending him to the wolves. He’s a public figure who owes the public an explanation. If he won’t give it the media will tar and feather him as it is doing. He’s got to make his case or others will make it for him.
It was not only hiring a lawyer that was a mistake it was hiring Kelly who has only been a defense lawyer for a little more than a year. Walsh hired him because he is friends with the prosecutors. He hopes he can smother any incipient investigation or control it. The problem is Kelly is an amateur. He has no experience in handling the media as experienced defense counsel would have.
He had already talked too much doing a disservice to Walsh by suggesting he was needed for his federal connections. He then followed up digging Walsh in a deeper hole. His next faux pas was talking to Columnist Leung.
He said to her: “The city wants to be open about this and find out what happened here, . . . ” I thought we knew what happened. A telephone call was made telling of planned picketing. That was it. Is Kelly suggesting there is more to it than that?
Former Boston U.S. attorney Mike Sullivan told Leung ominously “They would not have put [the statement about the City of Boston] in there for no purpose at all.” He added about Kelly: “He will leave no stone unturned. He will be very candid in his assessment.”
Leung is already pushing Kelly to undermine the mayor. She wonders if “Kelly will act more like a defense attorney protecting the administration or a true third-party investigator working on behalf of the taxpayers who are paying his legal fees.” Walsh better hope Kelly doesn’t fall for that. He better remind him he is not “a third-party investigator” but is hired as a defense attorney and there is an attorney/client privilege and also tell him that also applies to not disclosing anything to his buddies in Ortiz’s office.
If Marty wasn’t wondering if he brought a fox into the hen house then he surely is after Kelly walked blindly into Leung’s left hook. She asked about transparency and he responded: “Transparency is always a good thing, ultimately it will be up to the city on what it wants to do.” (my emphasis)
Kelly just boxed in the mayor. If Marty doesn’t, as Leung suggests, “make that answer clear by vowing to make all of Kelly’s work public, no matter where it leads” then he won’t be doing the good thing. And that will mean, according to Leung, that Walsh is not a “mayor for all.”
Kelly has to learn he’s not going around with Howie Carr putting on Crime Nights. He should shut up since he is not doing his client any favors. In the meantime Walsh should start talking if he’s done nothing wrong. He must accept he is the mayor. Mayors who run and hide end up losing the public support.
If he won’t fight to clear his name the media will gladly blacken it. He should understand that he never was the type of person who the media liked. Right now what is up in the air is who will run the City of Boston, Mayor Walsh or the combine that is out to get him.
★ ” Mystery Director ” … Meta-Language …. the Deus Ex Machina in the DOJ …. They have to be careful if they try to bag Marty . He is not your average Bear . 🙂
RN,
Spot On !!! … Paul Rico was a serous person. His airbrushes with OC are just that. He was a player. He did not just play through. Reasonable premises are necessary if you want a way into facts as opposed to ” fiction facts. ” What’s a Mystery Director to do ??? … I am certain he will figure it all out. And he will continue to Lead .
Matt,
there was a poster back in the day (on your site) that blew the official version out of the water…..remember?
This person claimed agents showed up to a thrice-removed location within minutes of the Halloran murder to cover their tracks,.?
….Remnants of Rico…whom you think is spotless….but I think…otherwise…..
Fidler has paperwork.
that’s a wrap.
Incomplete Timeline:
-September 2010: Wyshak begins investigating MA legislators based on Globe Spotlight report.
-November 2013: Howie Carr writes in his column that ‘while having lunch with his friend and “favorite federal prosecutor”, the federal prosecutor told Carr that the ‘the name Martin Walsh will sound good in a RICO indictment.’
[Assumption: the prosecutor was Wyshak. ]
-November 21, 2013: Globe cites unnamed leak revealing USA’s Public Corruption Unit (Wyshak) is investigating Charles Lightbody’s ownership of Everett casino land.
-January 6, 2014: Walsh is sworn in as Mayor. (Walsh is an Irish Catholic elected state representative Nd labor leader.)
-January 6, 2014: Walsh appoints Eugene O’Flaherty to be Boston’s Corp. Counsel.
-June 2014: Teamsters allegedly commit an illegal conspiracy to pressure television show to hire their members.
-June 2014: some Boston employee calls two restaurants to inform them of potential union pickets.
-September 2014: Winn is granted casino license.
-October 1, 2014: Wyshak indicts Lightbody and 2 others over casino land ownership.
-? 2014 Charles Lightbody retains Timothy Flaherty to defend him.
-December 2014: Timothy Flaherty pays alleged victim in Accord and Satisfaction.
-January 4, 2015: Wynn buys casino land from the defendants indicted by Wyshak.
-January 4, 2015: Walsh and O’Flaherty file suit in Suffolk Superior Court alleging Gaming Commission didn’t follow law for Wynn casino bid.
-March 2015: Wyshak actively participates in entrapment of Flaherty over the accord and satisfaction.
-May 21, 2015: Walsh and O’Flaherty amend and greatly expand civil complaint against Gaming Commission.
-May 27, 2015: Wyshak springs spurious indictment on Lightbody’s attorney, Timothy Flaherty.
-June 2015: Walsh and O’Flaherty’s attorneys representing the City file subpoenas for records citing specific facts regarding regarding the casino land deal and Wynn’s private investigators.
-June 29, 2015: the city’s subpoenas are leaked to the Globe’s Andrea Estes and published.
-July 6, 2015: Winn threatens to sue the City’s lawyers for libel.
-July 2015: attorneys for Lightbody and his co-defendants ask Wyshak for specific exculpatory information (Brady material) regarding the same topics that the City subpoenas identified.
-July 22, 2015: Wyshak (via a straw underling) files his response to the Lightbody defense’s Brady motion. In classic Wyshak fashion, the filing is short on law, but loaded with inflammatory sound bites for his friends in the media. Most notably, Wyshak viciously attacks the City of Boston (insert Walsh and O’Flaherty) for their state Superior Court case against the state Gaming Board ! He further alleges that the Lightbody criminal defense attorneys and the City’s attorneys have conspired together against him, saying all the lawyers worked “hand in hand”, and
“ithout a shred of evidence, and despite having been warned that the ‘alleged incident’ never happened, the defendants seized on a rumor spewed by the city of Boston in a vicious civil lawsuit against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and filed a Brady motion questioning the integrity of this criminal prosecution.”
(Proof beyond a reasonable doubt exists that Wyshak wrote this. Throughout DOJ’s filing, the author vouches for the credibility and integrity of his witnesses and himself and avers that his facts are true and his opponents’ are “baseless”, “false”, “parroted”, “based on rumor and innuendo”, “spurious”. Classic Wyshak! Unfortunately, federal judges take his word as gospel. This judge did! Reminds me of Wyshak yelling at Judge Casper about a defense motion, “Pat Nee has nothing to do with this case!!!”. His testimony convinced Judge Casper to side with him that day. Then he promptly presented a mountain of trial evidence proving he lied! Only in Boston Federal Court. )
-August-September 2015: Wyshak accelerates his investigation of the Teamsters, but switches the focus to a “conspiracy” between Teamsters and City Hall (Walsh and O’Flaherty).
-September 29, 2015: Wyshak finally unleashes his indictment of the five Teamsters.
Two days following their arraignment, nobody can remember the names of the five Teamsters. Instead, the indictment has become widely known for the name it did not contain, Martin Joseph Walsh.
If it was not clear in November 2013 when Wyshak stated he wanted that name in an indictment, he made it very clear in his July 22 Brady filing. On September 29th, Wyshak’s Teamster indictment made it unmistakeable.
This timeline does not include the Wyshak’s probation case, during which ethnic legislators like Walsh and O’Flaherty were Wyshak’s true targets. It was 2010 when Wyshak started trying to use Probation witnesses to indict legislators, but he still actively works that case. Marty has clearly been in Wyshak’s crosshairs for a long time. The indictment Wyshak wants so badly is inevitable.
BTW The Teamster named Fidler has the criminal record of an informant. He has had more ‘lucky breaks’ on life felonies in Federal court than Pat Nee. Despite being a career criminal, Wyshak released Fidler on the same low bail as the co-defendants who had no records. That pretty much confirms Fidler’s status. He is just the type of guy Wyshak will use to take down Mayor Walsh. Walsh’s humble beginnings during which he worked next to guys like Fidler is a vulnerability. A “Fidler” would be a devastating witness testifying against a sitting mayor who can’t deny he knows them, worked with them, is in pictures with them, and is still too humble not to embrace them just because he is the Mayor.
P
Marty had better channel his inner James Michael Curley and get out his dancing shoes.
Agreed. Marty Walsh seems like a decent guy but he’s definitely getting novice legal advice. Brian Kelly sold out the public as a federal prosecutor and is disgrace of as a Member of the Bar. He and Wyshak ran smear campaigns with the reporters; concocted perjury scams to frame defendants; participated in scams to defraud the Bulger murder victims of restitution and wrongful death damages. Kelly also routinely made up phony charges against the wives and children of the targets couldn’t make a case against.
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