Former Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner was sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday after accepting a $1,000 bribe and lying to FBI agents.
Turner’s defense attorneys had appealed for leniency, asking for Turner to be saved from prison and receive probation, but U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock rejected the appeal.
Prosecutors wanted to charge Turner with a prison term of 33 to 41 months as punishment after the embattled politician claimed his conviction was illegal, lying on the witness stand and making a ridicule of the court.
Before Turner was convicted, Woodlock called Turner’s testimony “ludicrous and surreal.’’
“The defendant perjured himself at trial,’’ Woodlock said to The Boston Globe. “He stated things he knew were not true…No one forced him to testify.”
After Turner was convicted in November of taking a $1,000 bribe from a storeowner for a liquor license and of lying to the FBI, Turner maintained his innocence and challenged the legality of his expulsion from office in court. He blamed his conviction on a government conspiracy to undermine African American elected officials.
Turner stayed insolent after his sentence, saying it was a case of “prosecutors gone wild.’’
“What happened today was as much a miscarriage of justice as the conviction and the arraignment,’’ Turner said to The Boston Globe. “I’m innocent, and I didn’t lie on the stand.’’
He is ordered to report to prison on March 25, and will have three years of probation once he is released. However Turner’s attorney’s asked for a stay, pending the appeal, which Woodlock said he is considering.
With his conviction, Turner, who represented District 7 covering Roxbury, Fenway, the South End and Dorchester, ended a 45-year public career. Turner, who was a member of the Green-Rainbow party, was elected to office in 1999 and easily won five re-election terms.
After he was arrested, Turner kept his seat as city councilor and continued to vote on bills, call hearings and win reelection in 2009 by 1,877 votes, despite his upcoming trial.
Former Massachusetts State Senator Dianne Wilkerson also was nabbed for corruption after pleading guilty to accepting bribes worth $23,500 earlier this month. Wilkerson was sentenced to three and a half years of prison.
A preliminary election to replace Turner will take place on Feb. 15, followed by an official election in March.
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