Gov. Deval Patrick, Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray named as potential witnesses.
Former Massachusetts House Speakers Thomas Finneran, left, and Salvatore DiMasi, right, talk to state House Minority Leader George Peterson Jr., prior to the swearing in ceremony for new lawmakers at the Statehouse in Boston, Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)DOCUMENT DUMP
The State House News Service has provided PDF files of the lists of possible prosecution and defense witnesses:
• Potential defense witnesses
• Potential prosecution witnesses
By Kyle Cheney and Matt Murphy
BOSTON — A who's who of Beacon Hill power players over the past decade - including Gov. Deval Patrick, Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray - may be called as witnesses in the trial of former Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, according to lists filed Wednesday by attorneys for DiMasi, his codefendants and prosecutors.
Defense attorneys listed 117 potential witnesses, while prosecutors named 43, including dozens of high profile elected officials and their aides, for the trial that is scheduled to begin next week. Although those included on the list may not be called to testify, attorneys cast a wide net of potential witnesses that could compel testimony from the highest echelons of Beacon Hill, including from those unaccustomed to the public glare.
Defense attorneys describe the names on their list as those "from whom or about whom the jurors are likely to hear during defendants' respective direct cases." Prosecutors note that the government "anticipates calling" the witnesses on its list and "reserves the right to supplement, modify, or withdraw witnesses from this list."
In addition to the big three, defense attorneys have included a handful of current and former lawmakers on their list: Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia Haddad, who represents Somerset, as well as former Sen. Joan Menard, former Sen. Robert Havern, and former Reps. Lida Harkins and Daniel Bosley.
A slew of DiMasi's former aides - including Maryann Calia, David Guarino, Jason Aluia, Daniel Toscano, and Katie Quinn - also made the defense witness list, while Guarino and former special assistant to DiMasi Quinn also made the prosecution's list.
James Eisenberg, DeLeo's chief of staff, who worked as chief of staff in House Ways and Means during DiMasi's tenure, also made both lists.
Defense attorneys and prosecutors both reserved their right to call Gov. Patrick to the stand, along with many current and former Patrick administration officials. Patrick's former budget chief Leslie Kirwan - now an assistant dean at Harvard University - is on both lists, as is former chief of staff and current political advisor Doug Rubin, and former deputy chief of staff David Morales, who recently left the administration for the private sector after a stint leading the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy.
Former Patrick communications director Kyle Sullivan, who now works with Rubin as a consultant at Northwind Strategies, was named by the defense.
Mitchell Chester, the current education commissioner, as well as Education Secretary Paul Reville and UMass President Jack Wilson are members of the defense list as well. David Driscoll, education commissioner under Gov. Mitt Romney, may also be called, as a witness for either the defense or prosecution.
Arline Isaacson and Judy Meredith, a pair of Beacon Hill lobbyists previously reported to be eyed by defense attorneys as potential witnesses, are on the list. Richard Arscott, the Legislature's former IT chief, is on the list, along with former representative, economic development undersecretary and biotech lobbyist Robert Coughlin. House Clerk Steven James is on the list as well.
Prosecutors allege that DiMasi pushed through language clearing a path for lucrative software contracts in exchange for kickbacks funneled through his private law firm. DiMasi, who is standing trial with co-defendants Richard McDonough, a prominent lobbyist, and Richard Vitale, DiMasi's friend and former accountant, has denied wrongdoing.
As expected, the potential witness list filed by U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz included DiMasi's alleged accomplice Joseph Lally, who pleaded guilty last month to charges of conspiracy, extortion, and mail and wire fraud after selling two multi-million dollar software contracts to the state.
Attorneys for the defense argued unsuccessfully this week to bar Lally from testifying, arguing that prosecutors had essentially bribed Lally with a plea deal that allowed him to keep his North Reading home and $30,000 in bank accounts in exchange for his testimony.
U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf, however, upheld the plea bargain in exchange for Lally's cooperation as a standard, legal deal.
Prosecutors have alleged that Lally helped coordinate a kickback scheme that paid DiMasi tens of thousands of dollars in order to secure $20 million in state contracts for Cognos, a software company for which Lally worked as a sales executive. Lally helped arrange an agreement to funnel funds to DiMasi through a legal services contract with DiMasi's longtime law partner Steven Topazio, prosecutors allege.
In exchange for a recommended sentence of two to three years in prison, Lally agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in building their case against DiMasi, Vitale and McDonough.
Among the 43 names of potential witnesses, the prosecution also lists DiMasi's former law associate Topazio, who allegedly took $125,000 from Cognos for services he never performed, and forwarded half that money to the former Speaker.
Cognos CEO Robert Ashe is also among those expected to testify for the prosecution.
Though no current members of the Patrick administration aside from the governor were named as possible witnesses for the prosecution, former members like Rubin, Kirwan and Morales could be joined by the likes of David Simas, a former deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to the governor who left Beacon Hill in 2009 to become a policy advisor at the White House to President Barack Obama.
Former state chief information officer Bethann Pepoli, who served under Patrick and former Gov. Mitt Romney, could also be called to testify for the prosecution or the defense.
The witness list also includes the keepers of record at three different banks, including Bank of America, Danversbank and Sovereign Bank, and the record keepers at Verizon and AT&T.