Disgraced ex-Boston Metropolis Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson’s picture was taken down Friday from the fifth-floor Metropolis Council foyer in Metropolis Corridor, the place it remained hanging for per week after her resignation from the physique took impact.
Fernandes Anderson, who was convicted on federal corruption prices in early Might, departed her job as a metropolis councilor on July 4. However her picture remained hanging alongside skilled portraits of the 12 present councilors for everything of this previous week, in a outstanding publicly-accessible Metropolis Corridor location.
After the Herald inquired Friday about whether or not there have been plans take down the ex-councilor’s picture from the Metropolis Council foyer, the place guests test in with a receptionist, Council President Ruthzee Louijeune’s workplace stated “the removal was scheduled for today.”
When requested what brought about the delay in its removing, Louijeune stated in an announcement, “There was no delay.”
“There was necessary coordination between city departments who are busy serving the residents of this city,” Louijeune stated. “This is a non-story.”
Councilor Erin Murphy stated, nevertheless, that eradicating the disgraced ex-councilor’s picture ought to have been a better precedence.
“Given Councilor Fernandes Anderson’s federal guilty plea and impending prison sentence, removing her portrait on July 4 should’ve been immediate,” Murphy stated in an announcement. “As a substitute, it lingered for per week — a obtrusive failure to deal with this head on.
“This delay not only showed a lack of accountability but also prevented the Council from moving forward and clearly separating itself from her actions. Finally taking it down is overdue. The Council can’t keep avoiding responsibility like this.”
Fernandes Anderson, 46, pleaded responsible on Might 5 to 2 of six public corruption felony prices that had been lodged towards her in a federal indictment final December, when she was additionally arrested by the feds exterior her Dorchester residence.
The ex-councilor agreed to plead responsible to 2 of the fees — one depend of wire fraud and one depend of theft regarding a federal program — as a part of a plea cope with the U.S. Legal professional’s workplace. The 4 different wire fraud prices had been dropped as a part of the deal she entered into with federal prosecutors in early April.
The fees are tied to a kickback scheme Fernandes Anderson carried out at Metropolis Corridor two years in the past. The then-councilor doled out a $13,000 bonus to one in every of her Council staffers, a relative however not rapid member of the family, on the situation that $7,000 be kicked again to her. The handoff was coordinated by textual content and happened in a Metropolis Corridor lavatory in June 2023, the federal indictment states.
Fernandes Anderson is about to be sentenced in federal court docket on July 29. U.S. Legal professional Leah Foley has advisable that the ex-councilor be sentenced to a yr and a day in jail and ordered to pay $13,000 in restitution.
All that is still now of Fernandes Anderson’s embattled Council tenure is an empty body, set to be crammed by a photograph of the following District 7 councilor — who will succeed her in representing Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway and a part of the South Finish after the November basic election.
Till then, the District 7 Council body and seat will each stay vacant. — Gayla Cawley
Norfolk DA candidate applauds Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik’s removing
A candidate operating for Norfolk County District Legal professional says she is in full help of the Massachusetts State Police eradicating Sgt. Yuriy Buhkenik from the workplace.
“I again applaud MA State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble for his leadership in reassigning another officer from the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office,” Dedham resident Djuna Perkins acknowledged in a social media publish final week, a day after the event got here to mild.
“As DA, I would have removed Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik on day #1, but now that will not be necessary,” the previous assistant legal professional basic and head of the Suffolk County DA’s home violence unit added. “I will eliminate the toxic culture from the office and demand professionalism, integrity, and excellence so every resident of Norfolk County is safe and treated fairly under the law.”
Bukhenik’s removing from workplace comes because the fallout from the Karen Learn case spreads. He’s now on a “temporary duty assignment” on the Division of Requirements and Coaching within the Framingham headquarters.
The sergeant, who earned $211,961 in 2024 and has already pulled down $110,851 this yr, was beforehand compelled to forfeit 5 days of depart for failing to “properly supervise” rogue ex-Trooper Michael Proctor, who texted his boss vile observations about Karen Learn that turned a central theme within the homicide case.
After two trials, Learn was discovered responsible of only one cost — drunken driving.
Bukhenik’s inauspicious exit from the Norfolk DA’s workplace made him the third trooper linked to the Learn case to be banished.
Proctor was fired in March when Noble accepted the MSP Trial Board’s advice to terminate Proctor for failing to uphold company requirements. Det. Lt. Brian Tully was additionally eliminated as head of the detective bureau on the Norfolk DA’s workplace, because the Herald reported in October.
Perkins has referred to as on Norfolk DA Michael Morrissey to resign from the publish after the jury acquitted Learn of second-degree homicide within the dying of her Boston Police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, a cost Perkins says alerts an inexperienced prosecutor.
The seat will likely be up for vote within the November 2026 election. — Lance Reynolds
