The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 1

CityRegion News Bl-8, Cll-12 Lottery B2 New England News Briefs B2 pon Comics B6-7 Weather B8 Deaths CIO The Boston Globe Friday, May 24, 2 002 Brian McGrory 1,11111 Himilllllllll MINIUM MMMMIIMIMIMM II 1 1 1 1 Ml 1 1 1 Ml II I II 1 1 Mill 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Senate ad to worse? A lose-lose situation rivals said to ft if art unite i)i i There are a couple of things that could happen down at the federal courthouse on this otherwise fine spring day, and neither of them is particularly good. First, a jury might react to defense lawyer Tracy Miner's unexpect "-A Deal would give 4' Melconian top job Crumbling portions of the Sullivan Square overpass have led to a demolition decision. Rusted support columns on the Sullivan Square overpass, scheduled to come down this summer. By Frank Phillips GLOBE STAFF Two contenders to replace Demo cratic gubernatorial hopeful Thomas F. Birmingham as state Senate president agreed yesterday to join forces, a move that breaks a logjam in the competition for the powerful Beacon Hill post and could put Birmingham on precarious footing as leader of the chamber.

According to several Senate aides and members, the breakthrough came when majority whip Robert E. Travaglini, an East Boston Democrat, agreed to back the candidacy of Linda J. Melconian, the majority leader from i Senator Linda Melconianis majority leader. GLOBE STAFF PHOTOSESSDRAS SUAREZ Months after a $700,000 restoration attempt, the Sullivan Square overpass (foreground) will be razed. 4" Assembly Square Mall EXIT 28 5 SOMERVILLE Overpass to be demolished Some say razing overpass will heighten traffic woes By Mac Daniel GLOBE STAFF Huge hunks of concrete drop daily from the rusting and rotting Sullivan Square overpass, which is falling apart so fast that Massachusetts Highway Department officials, who spent $700,000 in March to try to shore it up, are now planning to tear it down instead.

Destroying one overpass might not seem like a big deal. But this is Boston, city of chronic traffic woes. Many predict that removing the aging span, which connects Somerville and Charlestown, is going to produce more aggravation on the area's already overburdened roadways. The overpass, which will be closed and dismantled beginning June 2, is a popular shortcut for commuters trying to avoid the jams on the clog-prone Central Artery. The overpass, which carries 2,000 vehicles a day, is also a popular escape around congestion at the Sullivan Square rotary, where cars merge with trucks forced to use the Alford Street bridge (Route 99) into Everett because ofTobin Bridge exit restrictions in Chelsea.

Traffic from the Sullivan Square rotary often backs up to the entrance to Exit 28 on Interstate 93 southbound, causing a rare traffic management phenomenon a backup within a backup. With the overpass gone, all traffic will be squeezed SULLIVAN SQUARE, Pag B4 edly impressive closing argument yesterday and return a not guilty verdict against John Connolly. At that point, the mobster sycophant will hold a parade down the center of Broadway and declare his vindication to the entire world. And any effort for an overhaul of the FBI's most corrupt field office, any hope for even the mildest of meaningful reforms, will be as dead as some two-bit gangster who found himself on the wrong side of one of Whitey Bulger's whims. The second possibility is that the jury will react to the overwhelming evidence of Connolly's wrongdoing and return a verdict of guilty.

At that point, the US attorney will appear before a bank of microphones and laud his prosecutors for a job well done. The head of Boston's FBI office will deem his bureau eradicated of its evil agents. And with that, everyone will declare the mission accomplished and move on. And that, ladies and gentlemen, might well be the biggest danger. You see, Connolly is but one miserably wayward little agent, a pistol-packing, badge-wearing errand boy for two of the -worst killers and drug kingpins this city has ever known.

His lawyer called him a scapegoat yesterday. The prosecutor referred to him as a scourge. The truth is, he's a little bit of both, but more than anything else, he's a symbol a symbol of a decades-long culture of corruption and ineptitude that has plagued Boston's FBI field office and continues to do so today. Connolly's criminality is an important issue to resolve. But push him aside and you find an agency in disarray.

A manager accepted fine wine from mobsters before getting the best gift of all: immunity from federal prosecutors. Rank-and-file agents, including one who remained on the job until his suspension last week, stand accused though not charged of taking envelopes stuffed with cash. Worst of all, and seldom discussed, the same man who led an FBI internal investigation that essentially cleared Connolly and his cohorts of all charges in 1997, Charles Prouty, now heads the Boston office. Not only does he head it, he was just given a year's extension on his mandatory retirement. In a crowded federal courtroom yesterday, where the defendant sat surrounded by his three young sons, the bespectacled prosecutor, John Durham, declared in his closing argument that Connolly "was playing for another team." Maybe so, but back in the 1970s and 1980s, the entire Boston FBI office seemed to switch over to Team Bulger.

The good guys, they were the State Police, the DEA agents, and some Boston cops, men and women who tirelessly put their lives on the line in pursuit of an elusive truth. They sat in vans for hours at a time on frigid winter nights. They watched one investigation after another compromised for reasons they at first couldn't comprehend. They fought patiently and frantically as the body count rose all around them. And most recently, they were the ones who literally dug up more casualties from Bulger's federally sanctioned reign of terror.

What was the FBI doing? Threatening to subpoena their phone records to find out who was talking to the press. Already, the FBI and Justice Department are looking to undo some basic reforms in handling informants. Bulger, meantime, laughs from afar. Connolly and his cohorts sold themselves short a diamond ring here, a plane ticket there, with the occasional envelope stuffed with five grand thrown in for good measure. A city shouldn't do the same.

After the jury hopefully does the right thing and a judge sends him off to jail, the public is owed an answer to a simple but troubling question: What" next? Brian McGrory can be reached at mcgroryglobe.com Springfield. Neither senator could be reached for comment Under the deal, Travaglini would put his own ambitions for the presidency on hold, and settle for the number two post of majority leader. With the support of TVavaglini and approximately five other senators who have backed him, Melconian would leap far ahead of other contenders for the Senate presidency. One longtime Senate observer said SENATE, Page BS Witness says she heard no Skakeljest By Brian MacQuarrie GLOBE STAFF NORWALK, Conn. Kennedy-linked scandals past and present converged here yesterday when the former Cohasset, baby sitter allegedly involved in a sexual relationship with Michael Kennedy testified in the defense of his cousin, Michael Skakel.

Whisked into Superior Court with her public relations spokeswoman, the witness, 24, rebutted the previous testimony of a family friend and said she had no recollection of a 1997 party at which Skakel allegedly told other guests in jest: "Ask me why I killed my neighbor." Skakel, 41, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy, is on trial for the 1 975 murder of his teenage neighbor Martha Moxley. The witness appeared nervous as she took a public stage for the first time since the baby sitter scandal erupted in the spring of 1997. Now living in Florida, the woman agreed SKAKEL, Page BS ToEverett V- A X' I Sullivan Square CHARLESTOWN To City Square 200FEET NORTH GLOBE STAFF MAP II 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (III 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 II I It 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 II till 1 1 II I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Connolly defense calls trial 'payback' Yl Ol mar nyaneueymurpny eteering trial. for its problems," said Miner, referring This is payback, pure and simple," to federal court hearings in 1998 that ex-Retired FBI Special Agent John J. said Boston attorney Tracy Miner, who posed the FBI's cozy relationship with Connolly Jr.

is the victim of a band of represents Connolly. She argued that Bulger and Flemmi, who now stand ac-vengeful mobsters and an FBI that made the government was willing to believe cused of 23 murders between them. him a scapegoat to cover its own mis- three "serial killers" and a "serial liar "Who better than the informants han-handling of informants James "Whitey" rather than admit that the FBI as an in- dler, somebody at the bottom of the to- Bulger and Stephen Flemmi, a defense stitution had blessed Connolly's han- tem pole? Someone they could label a lawyer argued yesterday during closing dling of Bulger and Flemmi. rogue agent, then say they cleaned statements in the ex-agenfs federal rack- "The government needed a scapegoat CONNOLLY, Page B4 IIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItlllllllll IIIIIIMIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItlllll Cambridge faces surprise plan to create three middle schools I- I fit 1 .1 1 By Michele Kurtz and Mary Hurley GLOBE CORRESPONDENTS CAMBRIDGE In a sweeping move that would displace thousands of students in 2003, Cambridge Schools Superintendent Bobbie D'Alessandro announced plans yesterday to create three middle schools and dismantle the district's kindergarten-through-eighth-grade campuses. The plan, designed to better prepare students for high school and to shore up enrollment at underused schools, drew sharp criticism yesterday and still faces School Committee approval next month.

The move to the middle school model would bring Cambridge's school structure in line with most districts nationwide, but it comes as many systems have begun considering a return to K-8 schools. "I think it's a bold, thoughtful plan to address a systemic issue of student achievement that we have been wrestling with for a long time in Cambridge," said D'Alessandro, who gave Cambridge School Committee members copies of her proposal yesterday and also presented it in a meeting with school system principals. D'Alessandro hopes the change will help put students from widely varying CAMBRIDGE, Pa B5 art rif -J CHANGED LANDSCAPE Brenda Curry of Winthrop picking flowers in the newark at Deer Island. B3.