An unusual witness testified Thursday in the trial of a friend of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev.
Former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis said he and his wife were long-time family friends of Robel Phillipos's mother. Dukakis even took Phillipos to the Democratic national convention in 2004, he said.
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Dukakis testified in US District Court in Boston that several days after the Marathon bombing Phillipos's mother said she was concerned about him, so he got Phillipos's cellphone number and called him.
'He told me he was questioned for five hours by the FBI,' Dukakis said.
'Did you get the sense that he was confused?' defense attorney Derege Demissie asked.
'Yes,' said Dukakis.
Dukakis said Phillipos 'told me he was so confused he didn't know what he said.'
Dukakis also said, under questioning by Assistant US Attorney John Capin, that Phillipos seemed 'upset' on the phone.
Phillipos, 20, of Cambridge, a friend of Tsarnaev's from both growing up in Cambridge and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, which both attended, is on trial for allegedly lying to federal agents.
Prosecutors say Phillipos and two other Tsarnaev friends entered Tsarnaev's dorm room at the university on the night of April 18, 2013, three days after the Marathon terror attack, and that Phillipos observed the two friends remove an incriminating backpack containing fireworks, which the two friends later threw in the trash.
Prosecutors say that Phillipos, in an effort to conceal his involvement that night, lied repeatedly to investigators, and that he came clean only in a written confession on April 26, 2013, during an intense interrogation by an FBI agent.
The two friends have already been convicted of obstruction of justice charges. None of the three is alleged to have had any knowledge of the bomb plot beforehand.
Defense attorneys say Phillipos cannot be convicted of lying about events that he does not recall. They have cited some half-dozen times that he smoked marijuana on April 18, 2013.
Dukakis also testified Thursday that Phillipos did not inquire about a lawyer or any other help. And he said he felt his relationship with Phillipos was such that the young man would feel comfortable asking for help, if he needed it.
Dukakis said his wife, Kitty, knew Phillipos's mother because both were social workers at the International Institute.
'We watched him grow up,' he said.
Patricia Wen can be reached at wen@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @globepatty.
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, October 16, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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