BOB SALSBERG, Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors yesterday recommended that former state probation commissioner John O’Brien be sentenced to nearly six years in prison for orchestrating a rigged hiring system that ensured jobs in the agency went to applicants sponsored by powerful state lawmakers.
In a sentencing memorandum filed in federal court, the government also asked that two O’Brien deputies, Elizabeth Tavares and William Burke, each spend five years behind bars for their roles in the case.
The filing came shortly after U.S. District Judge William Young denied defense motions to dismiss the convictions of the three or order that a new trial be held.
O’Brien was convicted in July of racketeering and mail fraud in a case that shined a light on the patronage culture in state government. Tavares also was convicted of racketeering and mail fraud while Burke was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy.
Prosecutors said during the two-month trial that the defendants — led by O’Brien — created a “sham” process designed to circumvent the agency’s merit-based hiring directive and make sure coveted probation officer jobs went to candidates backed by legislators or other officials, often at the expense of more qualified applicants.
No current or past lawmakers were ever charged.
Prosecutors recommended that O’Brien be sentenced to 70 months — or five years and 10 months — behind bars, and that Tavares and Burke each be sentenced to 60 months, or five years in prison.
The government cited the seriousness of the charges and said the defendants had not accepted responsibility for their actions.
“The defendants breached the public trust by implementing a system in which they falsely purported to hire employees based on ‘who you know’ when in actuality, they were hiring based on ‘what you know.’ Although society has attempted to rid itself of crony politics, the defendants apparently never received that message,” prosecutors from the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office wrote in the sentencing memorandum.
Lawyers for Tavares, in a sentencing memo filed earlier Thursday, said their client had a “minor role” in the case and asked that she not serve prison time but instead be sentenced to three years of probation, with the possibility of home confinement for part of that period.
Attorneys for O’Brien and Burke were expected to make recommendations prior to the sentencing hearing.
Prosecutors acknowledged the possibility that Young might require a lower sentencing range for Tavares and Burke, and said they would adjust their recommendations accordingly should that happen.
Young ruled yesterday that O’Brien was eligible for a stiffer sentence because he abused his position of public trust.
Among reasons cited by defense attorneys in their unsuccessful bid for a new trial was “newly-discovered evidence,” specifically an affidavit from a state trial court employee that suggested political patronage was a common practice in the court system.
The affidavit, the defense argued, showed that Robert Mulligan, the former chief justice of the trial court and a key prosecution witness, himself maintained spreadsheets with the names of court officer candidates who were sponsored by legislative leaders.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Karin Bell said defense attorneys could easily have accessed the supposedly new evidence months before the trial, and were greatly overstating the significance of the affidavit.
“The government’s view is a big ‘so what?'” said Bell.
