BOSTON — The lawyer for the longtime girlfriend of Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger asked a judge on Monday to sentence her to 27 months in prison for helping the fugitive stay on the run for 16 years.

Prosecutors have asked for a decade in prison for Catherine Greig, who faces sentencing Tuesday.

Additional Photos

This undated file photo provided by the U.S. Marshals Service shows Catherine Greig, the longtime girlfriend of Whitey Bulger, captured with Bulger June 22, 2011, in Santa Monica, Calif. Greig was by Bulger's side for more than three decades, first as a secret girlfriend he kept on the side while he lived with another woman, then as the faithful woman who left behind her life in Massachusetts so she could go on the run with him. (AP Photo/U.S. Marshals Service, File) Catherine Greig

The 61-year-old pleaded guilty in March to charges of conspiracy to harbor a fugitive, identity fraud and conspiracy to commit identity fraud. The 82-year-old Bulger is awaiting trial on charges he participated in 19 murders. Authorities captured the couple in Santa Monica, Calif., last June.

Prosecutors say the pair posed as married retirees from Chicago and had a stash of more than $800,000 in cash and 30 weapons in their apartment upon capture.

In a sentencing memo, Greig’s lawyer Kevin Reddington said his client was in love with Bulger and there was no evidence she knew about the money or guns.

He said Bulger was a “Robin Hood like” person and a “champion of the oppressed” when she fled with him, years before an indictment revealed “horrific allegations of murder.”

The attorney called the government’s sentencing recommendation a “draconian sentence” to crush someone prosecutors are trying to portray as a “sinister mastermind.”

Reddington also suggested that the government was trying to “rectify the bungling” of their investigation and redeem themselves from bad publicity. He said the government struck a plea deal with Greig, then faced criticism in the media from family members of those whom prosecutors say Bulger killed.

Greig faces a maximum of 15 years in prison, but prosecutors previously said she could serve as little as 32 months under sentencing guidelines. Reddington’s memo says probation officials recommended a prison sentence of 27 to 33 months.

The defense attorney also singled out Steven Davis, the brother of a 26-year-old woman who prosecutor say Bulger killed in 1981, as spearheading criticism he says led to a post-plea effort by the government to give his client a long prison sentence.

Greig’s attorney also filed an objection Monday to a request from the U.S. attorney’s office to allow Davis and other family of Bulger’s victims to speak at her sentencing. He says they’re not victims of Greig’s crimes.

Prosecutors have called Greig’s conduct the most extreme case of harboring a criminal they’ve seen. They said she protected Bulger from authorities, for years denying the family of his victims the chance to see him brought to justice.

Davis said Monday that a sentence of 27 months “would be the most ridiculous thing to ever come out of federal court.”

He also criticized Greig’s lawer for singling him out and said he would speak at the courthouse Tuesday even if the judge decided he couldn’t speak during Greig’s sentencing.

“If we’re not allowed to speak, they’re gonna hear all the dirt outside,” Davis, of Milton, said. “They want me to keep quiet? They’re going to have to wait until I die.”

Patricia Donahue, the widow of a man who died in a hail of bullets after prosecutors say Bulger opened fire on someone else in 1982, called the defense’s request for 27 months in prison for Greig “a joke” that would encourage other people to harbor criminals.

Donahue, of Boston, also said she was hoping to speak at Greig’s sentencing.

“How are we not victims of the crime if she spent 16 years with the man responsible for my husband’s death?” Donahue said.

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