The court-appointed recipient of a financially tied Boston nursing home defended the employment of disgraced former senator Diane Wilkerson after “an allegation of nepotism and self-dealing” was filed against her last month.
In the post-hearing order, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Christopher Berezos, who oversees hearings regarding recipients at the Edgar P. Benjamin Healthcare Center in Roxbury, raised “significant concerns” about the substantial salary that Wilkerson testified to build a bankruptcy facility.
“On April 16, the court heard testimony from several witnesses regarding nepotism and self-dealing claims by members of the receivership team,” Berezos wrote in an order on April 22. “The subject of such allegations, Wilkerson, offered to testify that she is an EPBHC employee, received full benefits, paid at a rate of $82 per hour, and worked an average of 90 hours a week, under the pain of perjury and penalties.
“If such testimony is accurate, it raises serious concern that the expected loss in 2025 in the $4.4 million region will result in a percentage of compensation being paid to Mr. Wilkerson,” the judge added.
Wilkerson, a former state senator whose political career ended after being arrested by the federal government for taking a bribe, is an executive assistant to Joseph Feaster, a court-appointed recipient of troubled nursing homes.
She attended a hearing held in Superior Court on Thursday, but postponed comments to Feaster as she did not participate in the lawsuit that day.
Speaking to reporters after a roughly 30-minute hearing, Feaster defended his decision to hire Wilkerson and compensation in the wake of a mismanagement allegation last month. He described Wilkerson as “talented” and said he was thoroughly vetted before being added to the facility's reception team.
“Donald Trump has a past, and he is the president of the United States,” Feaster said when asked about Wilkerson's checkered past. “She served her time. She has no stiffness. She has nothing to stop her from working, so it must be a determinant.
“So I was watching that because I certainly don't have a situation that was problematic for the organization or for me,” he said. “She's employable and talented.”
Wilkerson resigned from the state Senate in 2008 and spent more than two years in prison after agreeing to plead guilty to charges related to a bust of federal corruption. She was shown in a photo released by the federal government that she was infamously packing $1,000 into her bra.
Feaster said Wilkerson did not disguise herself in this position last month when she testified about compensation. He said there was a “misconception” about his assistant's testimony. When she says she works 90 hours a week, she actually gets paid every other week for a total of 80 hours.
“I think she was saying that she worked more hours than I was paid. What we want to check is… she's only paid 80 hours every other week,” Feaster said.
Wilkerson told the Herald last month it was true that she works 90 hours a week, earning $82 an hour, but “no one ever asked me a third question.”
“How many hours do I actually get paid? And the answer to that question is 40. That's all,” she said at the time.
Feaster also said he considers Wilkerson's hourly wage reasonable, considering he makes $450 an hour as a facility recipient.
Benjamin Healthcare, which has around 80 patients, was placed in the pick-up facility in April last year to avoid closing the facility and allow financial turnarounds to begin. Wilkerson was hired as executive assistant for Feaster when he was appointed recipient at the time.
This week's hearing was when the buyer was not realized through the bidding process, focusing on the facility's finances, whether the recipient should continue, and the court-appointed team's contingency plan.
According to a May 14th court filing from Feaster, on April 16th, “recipient has notified the court” and “the most viable path for the facility to continue operating is to solicit third party owner/operator proposals.”
Judge Berezos set a deadline of May 29th, seeking a breakdown of the financial information breakdowns of the facility's financial information from the receiving team.
Attorneys for Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who represents state agencies like the Department of Health, said the state would like to keep the Roxbury facility open rather than moving forward with patient closures and relocation.
To seek to collect the funds, Feaster is pursuing a civil lawsuit filed against Tony Francis, the facility's former manager. Tony Francis ran Benjamin before he was appointed receiver.
The lawsuit alleges that Francis “sucks down” more than $3 million in funds from the facility, according to previous court filings from Feaster.
The matter will return to court on June 28th.
Original issue: May 15th, 2025, 7:51pm EDT
