Judge: DiMasi's Former Co-Defendent Can Testify
BOSTON (CBS) - A judge hearing the corruption case of former House Speaker Sal DiMasi has ruled former co-defendant Joseph Lally will be allowed to testify.
On Tuesday, defense lawyers filed a motion to have Lally barred from the trial.
Lally is the man who sold a couple of multi-million dollar software contracts to the state and allegedly gave the former house speaker a cut.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Lana Jones reports
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At issue, a lawyer for one of Sal DiMasi's co-defendants argued that a deal that got Joseph Lally to testify gave him incentive to provide "untrustworthy testimony" and no incentive to exonerate the defendants.
Under the deal, Lally will only have to serve two to three years of a possible nine-year sentence.
The lawyer suggested the deal amounted to bribery by prosecutors.
But, Judge Mark Wolf told the defense they'd have plenty of time to challenge Lally's credibility when he takes the stand.
Attorney Samual Goldberg has been following the DiMasi case, and said DiMasi and his co-defendants are raising the question of Lally's credibility.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Deb Lawler spoke at length with Goldberg:
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"He's somebody who made a deal in order to save his own skin. In this case, the evidence of that would be the plea deal that the witness has to testify as to what the government is claiming is the truth in order to get a lesser sentence," said
Dimasi, Joseph McDonough and Richard Vitale are charged with scheming to rig state contracts with software company Cognos in exchange for money.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin next week.
The trial is expected to take at least 6 weeks.
