By: Scott Malone | Reuters
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BOSTON (Reuters) - The girlfriend of reputed U.S. mobster James "Whitey" Bulger on Wednesday appealed the eight-year sentence a judge had given her a day earlier for her role in helping the accused murderer evade justice for 16 years.
Catherine Greig , 61, made her appeal in court papers filed in Boston federal court. The one-paragraph appeal does not lay out her reasoning.
Her attorney, Kevin Reddington , told reporters after Tuesday's sentencing that he had thought the sentence was "fair" and that Greig was "not likely" to file an appeal.
Reddington did not immediately return a call seeking comment on Wednesday.
Judge Douglas Woodlock told the court on Tuesday that the sentence was heavier than normal for charges related to harboring a suspect because of the severity of Bulger 's alleged crimes - including 19 murders in the 1970s and 80s - and the length of time that Greig helped Bulger avoid arrest.
Prosecutors had sought a 10-year sentence, while Greig, who had pleaded guilty in March to charges of harboring a suspect, identity theft and conspiracy to commit identity theft, had sought 27 months.
Bulger, who prosecutors say ran the Winter Hill gang, fled Boston in 1994 after getting a tip from a corrupt FBI agent that authorities were closing in on him.
Greig joined Bulger a few weeks later.
The pair was arrested on June 22, 2011, in an apartment hideout in Santa Monica, California, with more than $800,000 in cash and a cache of 30 firearms.
Bulger, 82, has pleaded innocent and faces a November trial.
Bulger's case inspired Martin Scorsese's 2006 Academy Award-winning film "The Departed."
The case is United States v. Catherine Greig, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, No. 11-10286.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Eric Beech)
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