BOSTON - Upon delivering a box of campaign finance documents at the courthouse Friday, Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner, his wife Terri, and her lawyer alleged that the government is now "scrambling" to obtain evidence for its case against Turner.

The Turners and Michael Altman, Mrs. Turner's attorney, arrived at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse for a press conference about the subpoena that had been delivered to Turner's wife requesting all campaign documents for the past four years. Altman said the subpoena is an attempt by the prosecution to obtain damaging evidence against Turner that doesn't exist.

"What they are doing now, it appears to me, is they are scrambling," Altman said. "They have one questionable incident of $1,000 and they know that they can't really go after a respected public official on one incident like that. So now they are trying to make a case after the fact to justify what they've done before."

Unlike Turner's previous press conferences, this was remarkably low-key. Turner did not arrive with any supporters and only two reporters questioned the Turners and Altman. Altman stood next to the box of documents and, at the conclusion of the conference, announced he was delivering them to Assistant U.S. Attorney John McNeil.

Although he acknowledged that he had not read all of the documents, Altman said that the government will not find any illegal activity in the documents.

"I am confident that all of the documents here show that there was no illegal action by Turner," he said.

Altman also said that the subpoena only requested the documents and did not call on Turner's wife to testify.  

Turner's wife made only one statement in which she criticized the way the trial has proceeded and implied that she believed she was being treated unfairly.

"I don't know what to say," she said. "Any other person, how would they feel to be dragged into a process that you know is without merit and then have to spend insurmountable amount of time trying to prove your innocence that you know exists. In this country, we pretend to act that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But the media and people just decide that you're guilty and then you have to prove that you're innocent before you even go to court."

Altman also criticized the prosecution. When the government is going use its power to indict, he said, "it ought to have its act together. It ought to have the evidence together and it ought to gather it and marshal it and then bring charges that are appropriate. In this instance, as demonstrated by this box right there, they are now scrambling to try to prove something after they have brought charges. That is not the way the system is supposed to operate."