Timeline of problems of Mass Sen. Wilkerson

By The Associated Press | October 28, 2008

State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson's history of legal and ethical problems during her 13 years in the Legislature:

-- Oct. 28: Wilkerson is charged with accepting $23,500 in bribes in exchange for favors to undercover agents posing as local business.

-- Oct. 24: The state Bar Counsel accuses Wilkerson of lying under oath in an effort to overturn her nephew's manslaughter conviction.

-- Sept. 16: Wilkerson loses the Democratic primary to Sonia Chang-Diaz. She begins a write-in campaign for the Nov. 4 election.

-- Aug. 1: Wilkerson says she will pay a $10,000 fine and forego about $30,000 in debts she said her political committee owed her to settle allegations of campaign finance problems.

-- 2001: Wilkerson is fined $1,000 by the State Ethics Commission for failing to properly report that a bank she lobbied for as a senator was paying her more than $20,000 a year as a consultant.

-- 1999: Wilkerson is suspended from practicing law for one year after a tax evasion conviction.

-- 1998: Wilkerson agrees to pay back all unaccounted expenditures and to pay civil penalties totaling $11,500 to settle allegations of unexplained expenditures and undisclosed political action committee contributions.

-- 1997: Wilkerson is sentenced to house arrest after pleading guilty to failing to pay $51,000 in federal income taxes in the early 1990s.