s public rage continues over Judge Maria Lopez 's refusal to jail an admitted sexual assailant, many in Boston's legal community say there is a powerful personal dimension to the story.
Long before the sentencing, sources said there was bad blood between Lopez and Suffolk District Attorney Ralph C. Martin II. That is in part the result of Lopez's role in the dramatic and contentious legal battle for the $1.5 billion DeMoulas Supermarket business.
Last year, Martin joined other former and present prosecutors, including William F. Weld, to write US Attorney General Janet Reno in support of Gary Crossen, the Boston attorney in the DeMoulas case who is under federal investigation for trying to badger Lopez's former law clerk into providing damaging information about her. Crossen and Martin served on Weld's staff in the US attorney's office and remain good friends.
Sources said the letters infuriated Lopez, whose judicial reputation was on the line in the DeMoulas case. In fact one of the appeals to the Supreme Judicial Court in the case questioned her conduct and accused her of bias during the trial.
Martin and Lopez had a heated, face-to-face flare-up over his letter to Reno, sources said. Martin has insisted to friends that there is nothing personal in his public denunciations of Lopez's handling of the Charles ''Ebony'' Horton case. And Lopez is not talking.
Someone knew Bush would debate
The best early indicator that Texas Governor George W. Bush would agree to do what everyone said he never would - debate in Boston - was a call about 10 days ago from Paul Kirk, the cochairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, to Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino. In the call, Kirk asked Menino to stop using his memorable one-liner - that Bush's refusal gave ''a whole new meaning to the phrase `Boston Chicken.''' The reason: Kirk knew then that Bush would agree to the Oct. 3 debate.
State Democrats put up big money in support of the national ticket
Massachusetts Democrats last week showed why Bill Clinton and Al Gore keep showing up in Boston and tying up traffic.
A Democratic National Committee fund-raising event for Gore and his vice presidential running mate Joseph Lieberman generated $2.5 million for the party's presidential campaign - a record for one night of fund-raising in Massachusetts.
The credit, Democratic Party officials say, goes to Alan Solomont, the former neighborhood activist turned nursing home magnate. Solomont, the former DNC treasurer, was the chief fund-raiser for the event. About a third of the funds came from hard money $1,000 donations. But it was the huge soft money funds that pushed the overall take to record levels.
Hard to shake your own shadow
Former Governor William F. Weld, whose shadow is getting bigger now that he is living the high life in New York and eating out every night at chic city restaurants, had this recent observation about his return to the Empire state:
''When I moved out of New York in 1970, it was to get out from under my father's shadow,'' the ex-governor quipped at a rare appearance on Beacon Hill. ''I realize now I have moved back to New York to escape my own shadow.''
Weld was attending the swearing-in of Martha Sosman as the state's new Supreme Judicial Court Justice. She worked for Weld when he was US attorney. Weld went from the reception to see his old sidekick, Governor Paul Cellucci, to, among other things, urge him to sign the Community Preservation Act.
Teamster pension fund benefits Birmingham as well as Republicans
Not only have Republicans like Mark Robinson, former Weld chief of staff, gained financially for performing legal work for the Teamsters pension fund. The law firm of Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham, a Chelsea Democrat, received about $1.4 million in legal fees from the fund between October 1994 and September 1997, according to pension records. The Globe reported earlier this month that Robinson's Bingham Dana collected more than $2.4 million in legal fees in the last three years for representing the Fund's real estate division. According to a Birmingham spokeswoman, another partner in the law firm, Feinberg, Charnas & Birmingham, did all the legal work on the Fund, but Birmingham received a partner's share of the fees.
Pike panel fights itself on liaisons
In a scene this week that seemed like it was out of the Three Stooges, the three Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board members - Chairman Andrew Natsios, Jordan Levy and Christy Mihos - offered separate motions or amendments to address the Big Dig's troubled community liaison program. According to newspaper reports, some of the liaisons were shirking their duties, drinking wine and heading to the health club when they should have been at their jobs.
However, because each had his own somewhat different proposal, none of the members would second the other's, meaning none of the measures could be voted on.
That pleased several community activists who attended the meeting to praise the program for benefiting communities hard hit by the construction effects of the $13.9 billion Central Artery/Ted Williams Tunnel project.
County clerks chip in to support one of their own in primary fight
Worcester Clerk of Courts Loring P. ''Red'' Lamoureux is getting a little help from his friends in other county courthouses as he battles for his political life in Tuesday's Democratic primary against the strong challenge of Worcester Mayor Raymond V. Mariano. Lamoureux, a low-profile, 13-year incumbent who has been heavily outspent by Mariano, has received about $1,200 in contributions from fellow clerks or their employees. Leading the list is Suffolk Superior Court Clerk Michael J. Donovan, who gave $200, and six of Donovan's staff, who gave a combined $750. Dukes clerk Joseph E. Sollitto Jr., also chipped in $100, as did district court clerks from Chelsea and Springfield.
Globe Staff reporters Frank Phillips, Walter V. Robinson, Stephen Kurkjian, Thomas C. Palmer, Brian C. Mooney, and Stephanie Ebbert contributed to this report.
