Ex-Juror convicted of bribery during Demoulas trial is fined
Judy Rakowsky, The Boston Globe, Tuesday, February 6, 1996
A Woburn teacher convicted of soliciting a bribe while serving on the
jury for a multi-million-dollar lawsuit involving the Demoulas family
was fined $15,000, sentenced to two months of home confinement and ordered
to serve three years of probation yesterday. US District Court Judge
Reginald C. Lindsay granted a joint request for leniency in sentencing
James M. Sullivan, 46, of Arlington. The judge found that Sullivan's
medical and psychiatric problems had affected his judgment.
Sullivan told Lindsay that his actions caused him to lose the respect
of his family and students.
"I don't think I could ever make up for what happened," Sullivan
said. "I lost face in front of my children and I lost face in front
of my students."
Lindsay said that as part of his probation, Sullivan must take medication
for temporal lobe epilepsy, meningitis, and bipolar disorder.
Assistant US Attorney Amy Lederer had recommended a $40,000 to $50,000
fine, saying that the lack of jail time took into account Sullivan's
extenuating circumstances. She said the fine should be punitive.
Sullivan pleaded guilty to bribery and obstruction of justice for attempting
to solicit $220,000 from the Demoulas family to sway the jury during
the trial involving their Market Basket supermarket chain.
Sullivan sought an intermediary to set up a meeting with a member of
the Demoulas family to solicit the bribe. But the intermediary set up
a meeting with an undercover FBI agent.
Comments:
Defense retained Harold J. Bursztajn, MD, to perform a forensic psychiatric
examination of the defendant in support of the motion for sentence
reduction based on diminished capacity. Among the clinical considerations
offered was that, at the time of the offense, Mr. Sullivan was suffering
from: AXIS I: (a) Mood Disorder due to a poorly controlled seizure
disorder, with mixed depressive and psychotic features (Diagnostical
and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, IV
edition (DSM IV 293.83)); (b) Medication Induced Disorder (Dilantin
and barbiturate) (DSM IV 995.20); (c) Dissociative Disorder (DSM
IV 300.15). AXIS II: Personality Change (Disinhibition) due to a
poorly controlled seizure disorder (310.10). AXIS III: Temporal Lobe
Epilepsy; severe, poorly controlled, exacerbated by situational stressors,
medication toxicity, alcohol, excessive (15+ cups) caffeine intake.
The case emphasizes the integrated nature of the forensic neuropsychiatric
examination utilizing of emerging neuroimaging and neurophysiology
technologies and to address brain and behavior questions.