Receiver of troubled Boston nursing house defends rent of disgraced ex-senator Dianne Wilkerson

A court-appointed receiver of a financially-strapped Boston nursing house defended his rent of disgraced ex-senator Dianne Wilkerson, after “allegations of nepotism and self-dealing” have been lodged in opposition to her in Superior Courtroom final month.

In a post-hearing order, Suffolk Superior Courtroom Choose Christopher Belezos, who’s overseeing hearings concerning the receivership of Roxbury’s Edgar P. Benjamin Healthcare Middle, raised “significant concerns” concerning the appreciable pay Wilkerson testified that she was making at a facility getting ready to chapter.

“On April 16, the court heard testimony from several witnesses regarding allegations of nepotism and self-dealing by a member of the receivership’s team,” Belezos wrote within the April 22 order. “The topic of such allegations, Ms. Wilkerson supplied, beneath pains and penalties of perjury, testimony that she is an worker of the EPBHC, receiving full advantages, being paid at a charge of $82 per hour, working a median of 90 hours per week.

“If such testimony is accurate, it raises significant concerns as to the rate of remuneration being paid to Ms. Wilkerson by an institution in receivership with a projected 2025 loss in the area of $4.4 million,” the choose added.

Wilkerson, an ex-state senator whose political profession ended after she was busted by the feds for taking a bribe, is government assistant to Joseph Feaster, the court-appointed receiver of the troubled nursing house.

She was current for a listening to held Thursday in Superior Courtroom, however didn’t participate within the day’s proceedings, and deferred remark to Feaster.

Talking with reporters after a roughly half-hour listening to, Feaster defended his resolution to rent Wilkerson and her compensation, within the wake of final month’s mismanagement allegations. He described Wilkerson as “talented” and mentioned she was totally vetted earlier than being added to the power’s receivership workforce.

“Donald Trump has a past, and he’s president of the United States,” Feaster mentioned when requested about Wilkerson’s checkered previous. “She served her time. She doesn’t have a CORI. She has nothing which might preclude her from working, and in order that must be the determinant.

“So that was looked at, because I certainly am not going to have any situation which would be problematic for the organization or for me,” he mentioned. “She’s employable and she’s talented.”

Wilkerson resigned from the state Senate in 2008 and spent greater than two years in jail after agreeing to plead responsible to expenses tied to a federal corruption bust. She was infamously proven stuffing $1,000 in money bribes into her bra in a photograph that was launched by the feds.

Feaster mentioned Wilkerson didn’t perjure herself on the stand final month, when she testified about her compensation. He mentioned there was a “misinterpretation” about his assistant’s testimony, when she mentioned she works 90 hours per week, when in truth, she will get paid on a bi-weekly foundation for a complete of 80 hours.

“I think that she was saying I work more hours than what I get paid for, and what we wanted to confirm is that … she only gets paid for bi-weekly, 80 hours,” Feaster mentioned.

Wilkerson advised the Herald final month that it’s true that she makes $82 an hour and works 90 hours per week, however “no one asked me a third question.”

“How many hours do I actually get paid for? And the answer to that question is 40. That’s all,” she mentioned on the time.

Feaster additionally mentioned he noticed Wilkerson’s hourly charge as cheap, provided that he makes $450 an hour as the power’s receiver.

Benjamin Healthcare, which has roughly 80 sufferers, was positioned into receivership final April to keep away from the power’s closure and permit it to start a monetary turnaround. Wilkerson was employed as Feaster’s government assistant upon his appointment as receiver at the moment.

This week’s listening to centered across the facility’s funds, whether or not receivership must be continued and what the court-appointed workforce’s contingency plan was if a purchaser doesn’t materialize from the bid course of.

Per a Could 14 court docket submitting from Feaster, the “receiver informed the court” on the April 16 listening to “that the most viable path forward for the facility to continue operating would be through soliciting proposals for third party owner/operator.”