A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the leaders of a small Protestant denomination alleging that a former mob henchman with ties to James "Whitey" Bulger was trying to take control of its former Boston affiliate's considerable assets.
Last March, the national Swedenborgian church sued Edward J. MacKenzie Jr. and the Boston Society of the New Jerusalem, which runs the Swedenborgian church on Beacon Hill. The suit alleged that MacKenzie and others were trying to take control of church money matters so they could personally benefit by converting a church-owned apartment building to condominiums.
The Boston affiliate severed ties from the national and state churches after a dispute last year involving its pastor's family. It set up new bylaws, making it easier to join the affiliate, and removing provisions that barred individuals from enriching themselves with church assets.
MacKenzie said he and others were just trying to open the 186-year-old church to a wider membership, but those who brought the suit claimed he was stacking the church with his own friends in an attempt to take over.
U.S. District Judge William G. Young wrote in his decision to dismiss the suit last Friday that the plaintiffs had failed to show that the defendants, in power for just 14 months, had engaged in a pattern of racketeering for more than two years, the usual federal standard.
Young also pointed out that the new leadership had recently agreed to a three-year period of oversight by the state attorney general's office, and the plaintiffs could pursue their grievances in state court.
That's exactly what they plan to do, according to George Chapin, a church member for more than 50 years. Dismissal of the federal lawsuit is just a "setback in time," he said, adding that the fight would now be taken to Suffolk Superior Court.
MacKenzie, who stepped down as treasurer after the start of the attorney general's takeover and now is the church's operations director, said the dismissal was "another vindication of the church, and of me." He denies the allegations.
Under the agreement, the church agreed to hire an independent chief financial officer and submit expense or sale of church property over $10,000 to the attorney general for review.
The church has about 100 members, but owns a 145-unit building valued at $30 million, which realtors say could be worth $75 million if converted to condominiums. The apartments generate more than $1 million in profit per year.
MacKenzie is a convicted drug dealer who recently wrote a book in which he said he was an enforcer for Bulger, a South Boston mobster and currently a fugitive from justice. He says he since has reformed.
The Swedenborgian Church is named for 18th-century Swedish scientist and philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg.
Swedenborg's interpretation of the Bible, which includes the tenet that believers - not God - decide their own fate, was denounced as heretical by mainstream Christians. The church spread rapidly in early America; in the 1920s, Helen Keller was one of its most visible members. Officials at the national office in Newton say there are 1,500 members nationwide.