Whitey Bulger's girlfriend gets more prison time
BOSTON -- The longtime girlfriend of gangster James "Whitey" Bulger was sentenced Thursday to an additional 21 months in prison for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating whether other people helped Bulger while he was a fugitive.
Catherine Greig already is serving an eight-year sentence for helping Bulger while he was a fugitive. Greig spent 16 years on the run with him before they were captured in Santa Monica, California, in 2011.
Bulger, now 86, is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2013 for playing a role in 11 murders.
Federal prosecutors had asked the judge to add a little more than three years to her prison time for her conviction on a criminal contempt charge. Greig's lawyer asked for leniency and said she should not get any more than six months.
"It is obvious that she is a kind, gentle woman who has literally done nothing bad in her life except fall in love with James Bulger and live with him for 16 years until their arrest," he wrote in a sentencing memo.
Prosecutors said Greig refused to answer questions before the grand jury even after she was given immunity and after a judge issued an order compelling her to testify. They argued in a sentencing memo that she should be sentenced to a little more than three years "for her conscious, considered, and unapologetic violation of the law."
Prior to the hearing, Grieg's twin sister told CBS Boston her sister has "no regret." Through tears, Margaret McCusker insisted her sister is not a criminal.
"She met this gentleman and she fell in love with him, and she felt he was her soulmate and she stayed with him, and she's still with him really," McCusker said Wednesday.
McCusker said she's pleaded with Greig to speak with authorities in order to be freed. She says Greig refuses, on principle.
"I think she has no regret. She wanted to be with him. She was with him. She had a wonderful 16 years. Wonderful," she said, referring to their life on the lam before agents finally moved in on Bulger in the couple's California apartment.
"This is very difficult for me because it's my twin sister, and she has to do what she has to do, even if I don't agree with it," said McCusker. "She doesn't regret it. If she did, she'd be talking now."
She said Greig still believes Bulger is innocent.
Greig already had nine months added to her prison time after she was found in civil contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury.