Keller @ Large: Tim Cahill To Pay $100,000 Fine In Lottery Ad Probe
BOSTON (CBS) - Former state treasurer Tim Cahill will avoid further criminal prosecution, but will have to pay a $100,000 civil fine for his role in misusing lottery ad funds under a settlement agreement with Attorney General Martha Coakley.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Lana Jones reports
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On Friday, the judge in the case accepted the deal, which was reached months after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in the criminal case against Cahill in December.=
As part of the agreement, Cahill has to pay the fine out of his personal funds, and will not be allowed to use campaign funds to pay it off. Cahill does not have to pay off the fine immediately, but he will not be allowed to run for office until he does. Cahill will be allowed to keep his pension.
"I'm very satisfied with the outcome," Cahill said after the hearing while refusing to go into specifics.
Coakley had charged Cahill with violating state law by spending $1.5 million on lottery ads down the stretch of his failed 2010 independent campaign for governor.
If Suffolk Superior Court Judge Christine Roach approves the agreement, Cahill will have a period of years to pay the civil fine. A criminal conviction could have cost Cahill his public pension.
The high-profile case was the first brought by Coakley's office under a 2009 ethics reform law that criminalized the diversion of public funds for political purposes.
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