Galluccio Resigns Senate Seat, Says He Will Appeal Jail Sentence

Massachusetts State Senator Anthony D. Galluccio resigned his Senate seat Tuesday night after being sentenced on Monday to a year in jail for violating his probation for an October hit-and-run accident.

“My decision today is not out of hopelessness but rather one of hope and opportunity,” Galluccio wrote in a letter today to Senate President Therese Murray. "In the end, I make this decision out of admiration and respect for each and every one of my Senate colleagues.”

In his resignation letter, Galluccio—who is currently imprisoned in the Middlesex House of Correction—asked for the support of his fellow senators as he attempts to appeal Monday's sentence. The senator has publicly attributed the positive results of a series of breathalyzer tests to his toothpaste, and he continues to assert that he did not consume alcohol—despite Cambridge District Court Judge Matthew J. Nestor’s ruling to the contrary.

“I maintain my innocence regarding this violation,” Galluccio wrote in his letter. “I assure you I have kept faith with the court, the Senate, my family and myself with my decision in early October to eliminate alcohol from my life.”

Galluccio, who pleaded guilty last month to leaving the scene of an October accident in Cambridge that caused minor injuries to two individuals, was ordered to abstain from alcohol and to submit to alcohol testing as part of his probation. But he tested positive for alcohol just three days after his guilty plea.

Galluccio testified on Monday that he had showered and brushed his teeth twice before the tests, stating that he had not ingested alcohol that morning, according to the Globe.

Murray had announced Monday that the Senate would discuss its response to Galluccio’s sentencing when it meets Wednesday. According to the Boston Globe, the Senate can recommend that a member be censured, suspended, or expelled—had the last motion been taken, Galluccio would have been the first senator to be expelled since 1977.

"Senator Galluccio has made the right decision today for himself, his family, the Senate and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," Murray said in a statement released Tuesday. "With his resignation, he can begin to face difficult personal challenges, and I hope he receives the services he needs to help him along the way."

Galluccio, who has represented Cambridge and several neighboring towns in the Massachusetts Senate since 2007, has been convicted of driving under the influence twice before, according to the Globe, but refused to state whether he had been drinking before the October hit-and-run incident.

—Staff writer Julie M. Zauzmer can be reached at jzauzmer@college.harvard.edu.