Key Witness In DiMasi Case Reports to Prison

BOSTON (AP) — A key prosecution witness in the corruption trial of former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi has begun his 18-month prison sentence.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Joseph Lally reported Monday to the minimum-security prison at Devens, Mass.

Lally was originally assigned to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he was slated to cook and clean for high-security inmates awaiting trial. U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf agreed to a request to recommend that Lally serve his sentence in a minimum-security camp closer to home.

DiMasi was convicted of using his clout as speaker to steer two state contracts to the software firm Cognos in exchange for payments of $65,000.

Lally, a software salesman, testified against DiMasi and co-defendant Richard McDonough.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.