Finneran Obstructs but Dodges Perjury

Oh, how quickly we forget. Thomas Finneran was all the rage 18 months ago. The subject of literal rage. After being speaker of the Massachusetts House for 8 years and a member for 18 years before that he was caught up in all sorts of political scandal. It wasn't the middle of the road politics or opposition to the same sex marriages that had been declared legal by the SJC, but his involvement in a redistricting scandal that forced him to leave his powerful post in Massachusetts politics and start dealing with the legal actions being taken against him. The Globe is reporting breaking news that the legal actions might be over. Finneran is set to plead out to Obstruction of Justice charges on Friday in exchange for the prosecutors taking the charges of perjury off the table. The agreement is said to involve a fine and a period of unsupervised probation. He'll also be barred from seeking political office for five years. It's an unsurprising punishment for a politician's illegal action.

Finneran, just over a year and a half ago, when he was caught up on the front pages of the papers and headlined newscasts, was a Boston figure we loved to hate. But he's quietly slipped back to life in Mattapan, and now serves as president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. Maybe now that he's done with the legal action against him he can take a few moments to update his website.