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State Sen. Galluccio Pleads Guilty In Hit-And-Run

A Massachusetts state senator who injured two people in a hit-and-run accident pleaded guilty and was sentenced Friday to six months' home confinement.

A Cambridge district court on Friday also ordered Sen. Anthony Galluccio to surrender his driver's license for five years, submit to random alcohol testing, wear a sobriety bracelet for six months and abstain from alcohol, as well as receive alcohol evaluation and treatment.

While he is confined, Galluccio can still attend formal Senate sessions and votes. He is also allowed to go to church on Sunday mornings.

He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident in the Oct. 4 crash.

Senate President Therese Murray said Galluccio has complied with her immediate demand that he resign as chairman of the higher education committee and positions in six other legislative committees.

"He now must consider whether he can continue to serve his constituents and the Commonwealth given the restrictions of his sentence," Murray said in a statement. "Over the next week, I will be consulting with members about this matter."

Galluccio, however, appeared determined to keep his legislative seat.

"I'm going to open my home to constituents and I'm going to do everything it takes to be the best state senator that I can be, and I'm going to do the same thing I always have - I'm going to do the best that I can under the circumstances," he told reporters after sentencing.

Galluccio, D-Cambridge, said he deeply regrets his actions. The 42-year-old has said he made a "serious error in judgment" when he drove away after his SUV rear-ended another vehicle. A 13-year-old boy and his father were slightly injured.

"I made a firm decision that there will be no alcohol in my life," Galluccio said after his sentencing.

Galluccio has refused to say whether he was drinking before the crash.

But 13 hours before the crash, Cambridge police gave Galluccio a ride home because they were worried he was too drunk to drive.

He was convicted of driving under the influence in 1984, when he was 17, and again in 1997. Former Gov. William F. Weld, a Republican, pardoned him for the first offense.

Galluccio again faced accusations of drunken driving in 2006 amid an eventually aborted campaign for former Sen. Jarrett Barrios' seat. People who were in three vehicles that he allegedly struck during a December 2005 chain-reaction crash in Boston's financial district said he was drunk at the time.

A Boston Municipal Court clerk magistrate later determined there was evidence Galluccio had been drinking but not enough evidence to charge him with drunken driving.

Galluccio is a former Cambridge city councilor and mayor.

In the past year, Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, D-Boston, has resigned after being charged with accepting bribes, while Sen. James Marzilli, D-Arlington, has resigned after being charged with making sexual remarks to women on a Lowell street.

This program aired on December 18, 2009. The audio for this program is not available.

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