BOSTON (AP) — A judge has ruled that former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran is entitled to his state pension despite his 2007 conviction on federal obstruction of justice charges.
The Boston Democrat served in the House for 26 years and was speaker from 1996 to 2004. The state retirement board ruled in 2012 that he forfeited his pension because his conviction was directly related to his public duties.
But according to the decision obtained by The Boston Globe on Wednesday, a judge rejected the board’s legal basis for that decision and ordered the pension retroactively reinstated.
The judge ruled Finneran was not acting in a public capacity when he falsely testified in a suit challenging his redistricting plan.
Finneran did not respond to a phone message from the newspaper.
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