Former Mass. House Speaker DiMasi's Home Confinement Ends

Former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi's six months of home confinement ended Monday with a ruling from the judge who originally sentenced him in a 2011 corruption case.

Judge Mark Wolf wrote in a Monday order that DiMasi's six months of home detention will end Monday as will the requirement that a family member or health aide monitor DiMasi when he eats –- a precaution imposed because of the former speaker's health ailments.

Wolf allowed DiMasi's prison term to be cut short in November because of DiMasi's poor health following bouts with cancer. A former North End Democrat, DiMasi rose to one of the most powerful positions in state government before federal prosecutors secured a conviction against him for corruptly steering two state contracts to the Canadian software company Cognos in 2007.

In his Monday morning ruling, Wolf said that all other conditions of DiMasi's supervised release remain in effect. Close to six years ago, Wolf sentenced DiMasi to eight years in prison followed by two years of supervised release.

Wolf's September 2011 sentencing order prohibited DiMasi from unauthorized travel outside the "judicial district" and required regular check-ins with a probation officer during his period of supervised release.

In a memo to the judge on Friday, the U.S. Probation Department recommended that Wolf remove the requirement that DiMasi's meals be monitored and logged, writing that his doctor observed that "after months of treatment, including a swallow study and swallow therapy with a speech and language pathologist, Mr. DiMasi’s chronic dysphagia has improved to the point where Mr. DiMasi can consume a regular diet utilizing recommended swallowing techniques and other precautions."