BOSTON - During the trial of James "Whitey" Bulger Wednesday Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian T. Kelly asked Judge Denise J. Casper to bar Governor's Councilor Michael J. Albano, of Longmeadow, from testifying in the trial. Bulger, 83, is accused in U.S. District Court of participating in 19 killings during the 1970s and ‘80s while leading the notorious gang. He...
BOSTON - During the trial of James "Whitey" Bulger Wednesday Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian T. Kelly asked Judge Denise J. Casper to bar Governor's Councilor Michael J. Albano, of Longmeadow, from testifying in the trial.
Bulger, 83, is accused in U.S. District Court of participating in 19 killings during the 1970s and ‘80s while leading the notorious gang. He fled Boston in 1994 and was one of the nation’s most-wanted fugitives until his arrest in California two years ago.
Kelly said Albano, a former mayor of Springfield, was being called to testify about "a collateral matter" and argued that Albano's testimony would be irrelevant, according to a report in The Boston Globe.
The judge took the request under advisement.
In a phone interview, Albano, who was subpoenaed last week to testify for the defense, said he didn't know yet if he would testify in the Bulger trial, given the move by prosecutors on Wednesday.
"They are saying it a collateral issue," Albano said while attending a rally in Springfield in support of increasing the state's minimum wage. "My sense is they don't want to expose the fact that the government put four innocent men in jail."
As a member of the Parole Board in the early 1980s, Albano voted to recommend the commutation of sentences for three of four murder convicts - Peter Limone, Joseph Salvati and Louis Greco - who later were found to be innocent of a gangland slaying near Boston. The fourth defendant, Henry Tameleo, died in prison before Albano had a chance to recommend release for him.
In 2007, a U.S. District Court judge ordered the government to pay $102 million to two of the men who spent three decades in prison and the families of two others who died in prison. The four murder convictions were overturned well before the civil trial in Boston.