Unflappable Turner takes the stand
By Richard Weir | Tuesday, October 26, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Politics
Photo by Mark Garfinkel
It was Chuck Turner’s turn on the stand today and the 70-year-old councilor swore he has no memory of an alleged $1,000 bribe being slipped into his hand by a businessman working for the FBI.
Turner, dressed in a suit and purple tie, was unflappable as he denied any culpability in the Aug. 3, 2007, exchange — even under a withering attack from prosecutor John McNeil.
McNeil peppered Turner with one question after another about the alleged money transfer between the Roxbury pol and entrepreneur-turned-informant Ronald Wilburn.
“Do you have a special blank for Ron Wilburn?” McNeil asked.
“No,” Turner said.
Asked about being slipped the money — as prosecutors maintain took place and was captured on a hidden camera — Turner said, “I don’t know.”
“But something changed hands, Mr. Turner,” McNeil shot back.
“It’s looks like that, but I don’t know. I couldn’t see it,” Turner said.
When asked about the reported cash bribe by his own attorney John Pavlos, Turner said it left him puzzled and still does.
“Why would somebody give me that kind of money?” Turner said. “It would make such a strange occurrence. It would create a memory.
“I saw it on the tape,” Turner later said. “It seems like there’s something there … I have no memory of it. The tape was not clear.”
Turner is due back on the stand in the morning in U.S. District Court in Boston.
Yesterday outside court Wilburn said jurors “will crucify (Turner’s) ass.”
When told of Wilburn’s assertions yesterday, Turner said he would leave it up to jurors to decide if he is telling the truth.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1291698
