The trial of former Fall River mayor Jasiel Correia began Tuesday.
Judge Douglas Woodlock has blocked out the entire week for jury empanelment, delaying opening statements and any presentation of evidence until next Monday.
Woodlock said the court is looking for jury members who will consider only the evidence that’s presented in the courtroom itself. That could prove challenging in a case that’s attracted national media coverage since Correia was first indicted two-and-a-half years ago.
Correia was 23 years old when he took office in 2016, making him one of the youngest mayors in America. But a series of federal indictments led to his removal from office in 2019.
What is Jasiel Correia accused of?
Correia is facing a total of 24 federal charges for wire fraud, tax evasion, extortion and bribery. All those are going to be evaluated by a jury in a single trial, but there are two distinct arenas the alleged crimes happened within.
The first is a company Correia founded before taking office called SnoOwl. He’s accused of siphoning money investors put into the business to buy things like a sports car and plane tickets, and to pay off his student loans from Providence College.
The second arena is Fall River’s city government, and those indictments came down almost a year later. The allegations include one from Correia’s chief of staff, Gen Andrade, who claims she was forced to kick back about half of her salary to Correia. The most lucrative corruption Correia is accused of is a pay-to-play scheme he allegedly orchestrated around marijuana licensing. Several people trying to open dispensaries in Fall River claim Correia demanded secret cash payments in exchange for his letter of approval, which they needed in order to apply for a permit. In total, prosecutors claim Correia took in about $600,000 worth of bribes from marijuana businesses.
Four people Correia worked closely with have been charged with felonies, including the chief of staff that kicked back her salary. All of them have pleaded guilty already, and three are expected to testify at the trial.
Jasiel Correia was recalled and reelected in the same election. Who is he, and how did he get started in politics?
Jasiel Correia has an origin story he likes to tell: he claims there’s a video of his birth where his grandmother, an immigrant from Portugal, says something like, “He’s been born on U.S. soil. That means he can be president.”
He likes to talk about his political career like it’s a fate he’s understood since he was a young kid. He ran for a seat on Fall River’s city council when he was 21, and he won — basically on a technicality. He finished tenth in a race for nine seats, but one of the winners took a different job at City Hall, so that bumped Correia into office.
He wasn’t very well known until he spoke publicly about a tense encounter he had with the mayor at the time, Will Flanagan. A group of voters was trying to remove Flanagan from office, and Jasiel Correia — this city councilor who was practically a teenager — hadn’t picked a side yet. Flanagan and some friends took Correia for a drive around town and, at some point, Flanagan pulled his gun out of its holster. Flanagan claimed he was answering a question from Correia about applying for a firearms license. Correia told the press he felt he was being threatened.
The controversy turned Correia into a real player in Fall River politics. A year later he ran for mayor, pitching himself as a successful tech entrepreneur who was going to use his business smarts to reform a government that hadn’t accomplished much recently. People responded strongly to that message, and he won. And even after the indictments started coming out that alleged SnoOwl was a fraudulent business, Correia won two more elections.
Correia dropped out of his re-election race in 2019, not long after the latest indictments about corruption at city hall. Now that the trial is starting, what will his defense be?
Unlike every other defendant caught up in the SnoOwl and city hall indictments, Correia is maintaining his innocence. His defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, has won high-profile cases for other famous clients.
On the government’s side, we’ve seen the accusations laid out, and the prosecution is required to provide a list of witnesses they may call to testify. We know less about the strategy Correia and his attorney will take to try to prove his innocence. It’s common in a criminal case for the defense to keep their cards close to their chest until trial.
Where is Jasiel Correia now?
He’s managing an upscale restaurant in downtown Fall River. When he announced he was taking a leave of absence from City Hall last October, Correia’s final words to the city as mayor were that he would be back.
This story has been updated.
