Judge not interested in special treatment of ex-House speaker
The federal judge asked to grant cancer survivor Salvatore F. DiMasi an early release from prison is weighing the former House speaker’s waning quality of life against his own concern that mercy for a politician will be mistaken as preferential treatment.
U.S. District Court Judge Mark L. Wolf took the unprecedented joint appeal of DiMasi’s legal team and U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz’s office for a sentence reduction under advisement yesterday following a 90-minute hearing before a packed courtroom.
He did express reservations that a favorable decision for DiMasi when he’s not terminally ill “would be seen as preferential treatment for a formerly powerful person.”
“It’s important that he be treated equally, the same, as any similarly situated inmate — not better, not worse,” Wolf said.
But Wolf, in 31 years on the bench, has never been asked to consider a compassionate release for an inmate. And according to the Bureau of Prisons, DiMasi, 71, is unlike any other prisoner.
The North End Democrat’s tongue and throat cancer is in remission, and doctors have declared him free of prostate cancer. But Darrin Howard, Bureau of Prisons associate general counsel, told Wolf that DiMasi is the only inmate among more than 191,525 in the federal system who requires a spotter when he eats or drinks to protect him from choking.
DiMasi was sentenced to eight years by Wolf in 2011 for taking $65,000 in bribes and kickbacks to sell the state on two multimillion-dollar software contracts.
“I intended to give him a long sentence; I didn’t intend to give him a life sentence,” Wolf said as DiMasi’s wife, Debbie — herself, a breast cancer survivor — looked on surrounded by family and friends.
DiMasi, incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner in North Carolina, did not attend.
Wolf did not hint at how soon he will render a ruling, but did say, “I know this is a matter of urgent importance. I’ll continue to give it careful attention.”