This undated file booking photo, obtained by WBUR 90.9 - NPR Radio Boston, shows Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger, who was captured on June 22, 2011, in Santa Monica, Calif., after 16 years on the lam. Federal prosecutors in Boston filed notice on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 that they are dropping a 1994 racketeering indictment against Bulger. In the notice, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz says prosecutors consider a later 1999 indictment charging Bulger with 19 murders the stronger case. (AP Photo/WBUR 90.9, File)
U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns says in a three-page decision issued Sunday that a motion by Bulger’s lead attorney last week seeking the judge’s recusal "raises no new issues of material fact or law."
Stearns says the case was randomly assigned to him in 1999 and he intends to "see it through fairly and expeditiously."
Bulger’s lawyer had said Bulger had been granted immunity by former U.S. Attorney Jeremiah O’Sullivan, and that Stearns’ time as a federal prosecutor overlapped O’Sullivan’s time in Boston. Bulger’s lawyer also says he may call Stearns as a witness.
Stearns says he was never involved in a case concerning Bulger.
Bulger’s lawyer had no comment.
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