“People are in a state of shock that he’s coming back to testify,’’ said one Beacon Hill lobbyist, who asked not to be named for fear of damaging business relationships. “There are a lot of nervous people around.’’
DiMasi, who served as speaker from 2004 until he was forced to resign in 2009, was one of the main beneficiaries of favoritism in the Probation Department, according to a 2010 independent counsel’s report, obtaining jobs or promotions for at least 24 candidates he supported. DiMasi was so important to John J. O’Brien, the former probation commissioner, that he kept a special spreadsheet of DiMasi’s preferred job candidates titled “DiMasi, Speaker Sal.’’
Grand juries, which are convened by prosecutors to collect evidence for potential criminal charges, conduct their work in secret. As a result, it is possible that DiMasi is to testify in another federal investigation.
Current and former elected officials were stunned by the news that DiMasi could testify and perhaps provide new firsthand details about the cozy relationship between the Legislature and the court system. Beacon Hill has been abuzz for months with rumors that the probation grand jury may soon indict a dozen or more people, including several current and former legislators.
US marshals have removed DiMasi from the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Ky., where he began serving an eight-year sentence on Nov. 30 following his conviction for steering state contracts to the software company Cognos. Officially, the Bureau of Prisons lists DiMasi as “in transit,’’ but a spokesman confirmed last night that DiMasi had made it to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The spokesman, Chris Burke, said that federal inmates are often transported by the prison bus system, making stops at various federal detention facilities along the way.
As a result, a federal prisoner’s trip from Kentucky to Worcester can take days or even longer, and it was unclear when DiMasi is expected to testify.
