Charges against Cargill were dropped immediately before the trial began after he cooperated with prosecutors, and the rest have agreed to plea-bargain agreements.

People who accepted the second mortgages and purchased the condos were not charged. They included State Representive Alvin E. Thompson (D-Cambridge) and Cambridge police Lieutenant Richard L. Bongiorno.

Walsh has insisted since his indictment that he is innocent. In a phone interview last week, he said the case involved "Dime getting caught with their pants down, trying to find a scapegoat."

"They made a lot of bad loans, and never verified anything," Walsh said.

Walsh said last week that the second mortgages were not the causes of most of the defaults.

"They [Dime] alleged that all of the mortgages that were defaulted on were defaulted on because of second mortgages, but I owned only 2-3% of the property they had second mortgages on," he said.

Walsh's Political Opponents

But many people disagreed with Walsh's position and with his self-proclaimed innocence.

Some of the most vocal are officials from the Cambridge Tenants Union (CTU) which strongly opposes Walsh and his position against rent control.

The CTU staged a demonstration outside City Hall calling for Walsh's resignation after his indictment in September, 1992.

"The man is guilty, the man should not be holding political office," Malcolm L. Kaufman, a member of the CTU steering committee said yesterday. "It's blight on the city."

"If he had any sense of decency, he would have stepped down," Kaufman said. "People in all ends of the political spectrum are after him."

Kaufman said he thinks it is likely that Walsh will be convicted. "I don't think that man will be finishing his term on the [Cambridge city] council," he said. "He will be starting a term in federal prison."

The Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) has taken a similar stance.

"[Walsh's] constituents deserve a better councillor, even if they don't think that they do." CCA President R. Philip Dowds said yesterday.