Federal prosecutors in Boston want a judge to sentence gangster Kevin J. Weeks to a relatively light total of nine years in prison, reports the Boston Globe. The government says he deserves leniency for his admitted involvement in murders because his cooperation against South Boston crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger led to events that are “unrivaled in the history of law enforcement in this district.”
Information from Weeks after his November 1999 indictment pointed to the discovery of secret graves with the remains of six Bulger victims and an arsenal of weapons, and triggered indictments and convictions against corrupt law enforcement officers and Bulger’s brother, John. Prosecutors said Weeks’s cooperation led to the “disrepute” of William M. Bulger, who resigned as president of the University of Massachusetts last year after he appeared before a congressional committee investigating his brother James’s relationship with the FBI. “The outcome of this case has not only destroyed Bulger’s `Robin Hood’ reputation but it has also exposed his true depravity and viciousness,” wrote prosecutors.
Weeks’s lawyer, Dennis J. Kelly, is wants a sentence of only five years, which would make him a free man after he is sentenced on Monday.