BOSTON – The state’s highest court ruled on Monday that a brother of fugitive mobster James “Whitey” Bulger must forfeit his $65,000-a-year state pension because he lied to grand juries investigating the gangster’s disappearance.
Lawyers for John “Jackie” Bulger, a retired court clerk magistrate, had argued that his crimes – essentially lying when he said he hadn’t heard from his brother since he’d fled shortly before his indictment in 1995 – were based on family loyalty and didn’t affect his job.
However, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that he had an “unwavering obligation to tell the truth” to grand juries investigating his brother’s disappearance.
“At the heart of a clerk-magistrate’s role is the unwavering obligation to tell the truth, to ensure that others do the same through the giving of oaths to complainants, and to promote the administration of justice,” the SJC said in its ruling.
John Bulger, 67, may now be forced to pay back $243,000 of the more than $300,000 in pension money he’s received since retiring in 2001.
He had pleaded guilty to perjury and obstruction of justice in 2003 for lying to two federal grand juries. He admitted that he lied when he testified he had not heard from his brother since he fled in 1995.
John Bulger also admitting lying to a grand jury in 1996 when he said had no knowledge about a safe deposit box owned by his older brother.
The state retirement board halted John Bulger’s pension payments after his conviction. A Boston Municipal Court judge later reinstated his pension, and state Treasurer Tim Cahill appealed to the SJC.
“This case was never about the last name of the person involved, but rather insuring that everyone plays by the same rules,” Cahill said in a statement.
It’s not the only Bulger pension dispute.
The state is appealing a Superior Court’s November ruling that gave another brother, former University of Massachusetts President William Bulger, $29,000 more than what he was awarded by the state’s pension system. William Bulger’s annual pension is now $208,000.
Whitey Bulger, 76, the oldest of the brothers, is wanted in connection with 21 murders and is on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list. He ran the Winter Hill Gang and was an FBI informant who ratted out his competitors in the Italian Mafia in the 1970s and 80s.
Whitey Bulger disappeared in late December 1994 after being tipped by his former FBI handler, John J. Connolly Jr., that he was about to be indicted for racketeering. Connolly is now serving a 10-year prison sentence for racketeering and obstruction of justice.
Paul T. Hynes, attorney for John Bulger, did not immediately return a call to comment. A phone listing in South Boston for Bulger was temporarily disconnected Monday.
John Bulger’s monthly pension was $5,326. Since his retirement from Boston Juvenile Court in late April 2001, he has received more than $312,500.
Excluding the $69,500 Bulger contributed to the retirement system through payroll deductions during his nearly 33 years as a state employee, that leaves $243,000 that the state could seek to recover, according to Neil Morrison, Cahill’s chief of staff.
“That’s a decision of the state retirement board,” Morrison said.
The clerk magistrate’s duties include managing the affairs of the court, administering oaths to witnesses before testimony, and sometimes holding show-cause hearings on criminal complaints.
Hynes previously argued that John Bulger’s crimes were “based on family loyalty” and that the clerk magistrate’s office wasn’t used to facilitate wrongdoing.
But in Monday’s 5-0 ruling, Justice Francis Spina wrote that Bulger violated laws applicable to his office.
“The nature of Bulger’s particular crimes cannot be separated from the nature of his particular office when what is at stake is the integrity of our judicial system,” the court said in its seven-page ruling.
