Community outpouring as Boston City Councilor faces racist sentencing

Supporters filled five courtrooms at Chuck Turner’s sentencing hearing on Jan. 25. The racist character of the proceedings was immediately apparent by the prosecutor’s opening statement that “this case has nothing to do with race” and calling for harsh sentencing. The prosecutor based this on Turner voluntarily taking the stand during his trial to tell the jury and his constituents that he was not guilty, as a matter of principle, and the fact that from the day of his arrest in 2008 right up to his sentencing, Turner has spoken out and exposed the political agenda of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in attempting to use the courts to bring down Black elected officials who are known for standing up for justice.

Defense attorney John Pavlos responded eloquently to the prosecutor’s racist assertions, laying out how racist prosecutorial misconduct was at the heart of the case from day one. The only two public officials prosecuted were Turner and Diane Wilkerson, both progressive Black politicians. The judge admitted there was no evidence or basis to believe that Turner’s office was for sale or that Turner was on the take.

This means there was no basis for the investigation, which involved paying an FBI informant $30,000 to allegedly give Turner about $1,000 in exchange for help in obtaining a liquor license. Though Turner does not remember meeting with the informant, his only action concerning the liquor license involved asking for a City Council hearing on why no liquor licenses were being granted to Black entrepreneurs in an area specifically set up to promote community business development.

Pavlos further laid out the extraordinary character of the more than 700 letters the judge received from Turner supporters. He read in court letter after letter from individual constituents describing Turner’s selfless and tireless efforts on their behalf on every issue affecting the community — fighting foreclosures, fighting school closings and for access to educational opportunities, and fighting for jobs, among many other concerns. Pavlos read from a letter from the Boston School Bus Union, Steelworkers Local 8751, and one from the International Action Center signed by former U.S. Attorney General and U.N. Human Rights award recipient Ramsey Clark.

Community support for Turner has been evident in the hundreds who have turned out at rally after rally in his support, including to protest the Boston City Council’s illegal action in removing Turner from office in 2010. Turner is suing the City Council to reverse this racist and illegal decision. Only the people of District 7 have the right to decide who will represent them, and they have elected Turner in every election since 1999. In 2009 they voted for him by more than 60 percent, even after he had been arrested and smeared in the press.

But none of this made a difference to Judge Douglas P. Woodlock, who sentenced the 70-year-old Turner to three years in federal prison. This same judge has sentenced prominent white state politicians, who were guilty of pocketing far larger sums of money, to probation. No white politicians involved in granting liquor licenses, including the mayor and City Council president, were subjected to a sting or prosecuted.

In December Woodlock sentenced Diane Wilkerson to three and a half years in a federal penitentiary. Wilkerson had pleaded guilty to accepting $23,000 from the same FBI informant. She too was the victim of an FBI sting operation.

Speaking to the press immediately after the sentencing, Turner condemned the racism and injustice of the investigation, arraignment, prosecution, verdict and sentencing, calling it prosecutorial and political persecution based on a political agenda. He evoked the long history of such conduct against Black politicians, including the Cointelpro attacks on Martin Luther King Jr. Turner vowed to continue to fight while in jail and to come back and continue the fight upon his return to the community.

He called on all his supporters to continue to organize and to hold those committing prosecutorial crimes, including former U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, accountable, as well as the Boston City Council members who voted him off the council with no right or power to do so. He is also launching a Justice Project for others framed up by prosecutorial persecution.

Turner is appealing both his conviction and his sentencing. He is scheduled to report to prison on March 25, but a motion to stay execution of the sentence until after the appeal is settled is under consideration by the judge.

Fighting the case has imposed a tremendous financial burden. Turner is owed more than $180,000 for operating expenses that he paid out of his own pocket for the District 7 City Council office that he ran in the heart of Roxbury, in addition to fines and loss of his salary and benefits as a city councilor. To make a donation, go to SupportChuckTurner.com.