Former Speaker DiMasi honored for public service

A North End group organizing Columbus Day celebrations honored former House Speaker and convicted felon Salvatore F. DiMasi with a public service award last night during a closed-door cocktail-and-cannoli party at the Long Wharf Marriott.

The North End Columbus Day Celebration Committee held an “evening of celebration and commemoration” at the waterfront hotel, where they presented DiMasi and outgoing City Councilor Salvatore LaMattina with the Michael A. Nazzaro Jr. Public Service Award.

DiMasi, who was released nearly a year ago from federal prison where he was serving time for corruption charges, slipped in and out of the event and organizers declined to give the Herald access. Attendees included Mayor Martin J. Walsh and City Council President Michelle Wu.

Nazzaro, the public service award’s namesake, was a former North End state rep and WWII veteran and is credited with establishing Columbus Day as a bank holiday in Massachusetts. He died in 2011.

DiMasi was released from federal prison in November on compassionate release given his battle with tongue and throat cancer. He had served five years of an eight-year sentence. DiMasi was sentenced in 2011 after his conviction on fraud and extortion charges for taking $65,000 in bribes and kickbacks from a Burlington company while in office.