State Rep Who Tried To Block The Mashpee Oyster Farm Is Back With A Doozy!

BostonGlobe.com – State Representative Michael Costello told a federal jury Monday that he sought the help of House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi’s office to lobby the Probation Department for a job for a family friend.

Costello said he had met John J. O’Brien, the probation commissioner, but did not know him well enough at the time, around 2006, and when it came to recommending the friend for a job, “I would try to go up the ladder.”

O’Brien, who was commissioner from 1998 to 2010, and his top deputies, Elizabeth Tavares and William Burke III, face charges including racketeering and mail fraud, for allegedly running their department like a criminal enterprise.

Prosecutors say they favored job candidates who were sponsored by state legislators over more qualified candidates. In exchange, the prosecutors say, the legislators routinely boosted the Probation Department’s budget, helping O’Brien build his political clout.

Prosecutors called the jobs “political currency” and say O’Brien and his deputies committed fraud by creating a scheme to shield the bogus hiring from the judges who oversaw appointments.

Remember Michael Costello? He is the shady state rep form Newburyport that tried to sneak legislation into the state budget that would kill a Mashpee oyster farm. It was later shown that he did it because he was paid by a bunch of uber wealthy summer residents that didn’t want a townie ruining their view.

Well, he is back in the news and this time it may be even shadier. It looks like he was part of an old boy network that traded jobs for his friends for budget increases in the department they were hired. So basically he was bribing officials to get his friends jobs… with our fucking money, taxpayer money.

How is this guy testifying with immunity? He misappropriated taxpayer money for his own gain, why is that something that he should get immunity for? Seems to me that is about as egregious as you can get. Even worse than taking money from someone in a district 100 miles away from yours and camouflaging legislation in order to hide it from your fellow state reps that actually represent that area.

What more does this dude have to do in order to have some repercussions? I think he must have nude pics of Deval’s wife or something.