News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2003

John P. Bulger Sentenced For Perjury and Obstruction of Justice

SEP 05 -- Boston, MA…A retired Clerk of the Boston Juvenile Court was sentenced today in federal court for perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with two separate grand juries investigating criminal activities relating to his brother James J. Bulger's organized crime group and his flight from prosecution.

Mark R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in New England; Colonel Thomas J. Foley, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police; Paul F. Evans, Commissioner of the Boston Police Department; Joseph A. Galasso, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation; Kenneth W. Kaiser, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New England; Michael T. Maloney, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Correction; and United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, announced today that John P. BULGER, age 65, of 17 Twomey Court, South Boston, Massachusetts, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George O' Toole to 6 months in prison, to be followed by 6 months in home confinement with electronic monitoring. BULGER was also ordered to serve 3 years of supervised release and to pay a $2,500 fine. The Government objected to the Court's determination of a sentencing guideline range of 10 to 16 months imprisonment, arguing that instead the range should be 41 to 51 months in prison. BULGER pleaded guilty on April 10, 2003, to an indictment charging him with two counts of perjury and two counts of obstruction of justice for falsely testifying on two occasions before separate federal grand juries.

At the earlier plea hearing, the prosecutor told the Court that had the case proceeded to trial, the evidence would have proven that on November 26, 1996, BULGER testified before a federal grand jury that he had no knowledge of any safe deposit boxes belonging to his brother James J. Bulger. In fact, BULGER knew of, and had made, a 1996 rent payment for, a safe deposit box in Clearwater, Florida that James J. Bulger opened in 1992. The false testimony was provided before a federal grand jury investigating James J. Bulger, Stephen J. Flemmi, and others for potential money laundering offenses relating to their organized crime activities.

John P. BULGER committed his second act of perjury and of obstruction of justice by falsely testifying on January 22, 1998, before another federal grand jury that was investigating Catherine P. Greig and others for potential offenses relating to harboring and assisting fugitive James J. Bulger. John P. BULGER falsely testified that he had received no direct or indirect communication whatsoever from his brother James J. Bulger since James J. Bulger had become a fugitive in January 1995. In fact, James J. Bulger had called an acquaintance of John P. BULGER's in approximately August 1996 and the acquaintance reported his conversations with James J. Bulger to John P. BULGER. Additionally, as noted at the change of plea hearing and in subsequent filings with the Court, had the case proceeded to trial the government would have offered the testimony of Kevin J. Weeks who was present in the summer of 1996 when John P. BULGER talked on the telephone with his fugitive brother James J. Bulger. Weeks would testify that shortly after the phone call between John P. BULGER and James J. Bulger in the summer of 1996, Weeks was instructed by James J. Bulger to meet with John P. BULGER and take several photographs of John P. BULGER wearing a fake mustache. After Weeks took the photos of John P. BULGER, he used them to make bogus identification documents for fugitive James J. Bulger. Weeks then delivered the bogus identification documents to James J. Bulger in Chicago.

This prosecution is the result of the cooperative efforts of the United States Attorney's Office, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Massachusetts State Police, the Boston Police Department, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and the Massachusetts Department of Correction.

Press Contact: Anthony J. Pettigrew