Last June, the outlook was bleak for Genoveva Andrade, the former campaign manager and chief of staff to Fall River’s convicted ex-mayor Jasiel Correia. Andrade, who is 50, saw a plea deal that would have spared her jail time rejected by federal District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock.
At the time, Woodlock said Andrade deserved incarceration for her role as second-in-command in a corrupt administration he compared to those of former Boston Mayor James Michael Curley and former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci.
During a second attempt at sentencing on Monday, Woodlock showed unexpected mercy by accepting a new plea agreement that once again spared jail time for Andrade. He raised the $10,000 fine suggested in the agreement to $50,000 and ordered that Andrade spend a year on probation.
The main difference between the plea deal rejected in June and the one accepted by Woodlock on Monday was the nature of the charges prosecutors included in each agreement.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office dropped several of the most serious charges against Andrade, in effect forcing Woodlock to ignore Andrade’s previous admissions of guilt about her role in a scheme to extort bribes from a businessman seeking to open a marijuana dispensary in Fall River.
Andrade ultimately pleaded guilty to a single charge of making false statements to investigators.
The statements concerned a $22,800 payment Andrade made to Correia shortly after he won his first mayoral election in 2014. Andrade initially told investigators the payment was a personal loan. During her sentencing hearing, she admitted it was a kickback that secured her a job as chief of staff in Correia’s mayoral administration.
Federal prosecutors pushed for a lenient sentence by citing more than 30 letters of support from Andrade’s relatives and former coworkers.
“The government reviewed every single letter this weekend,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Chao said. “A very clear picture emerges about Genoveva Andrade.”
Chao said her volunteer work and generosity in Fall River earned her a reputation as a “hometown hero” before joining Correia’s administration. He said she posed little risk of reoffending.
Woodlock pushed back during the hearing, at one point calling her decision not to cooperate with federal investigators “the fish bone in my throat on this case.”
“I think that Ms. Andrade should have cooperated,” Woodlock said. “It’s awkward. Unpleasant. But that’s what I think would have demonstrated more fully acceptance of responsibility.”
Andrade herself broke a long public silence by speaking during the hearing.
“I lived my life trying to be a good, generous and moral person but I made a serious mistake when I got involved with Jasiel Correia,” she said during an emotional speech to the court that saw her break into tears several times. “It seemed like he was trying to do good things for the city and its people, and he seemed like a breath of fresh air.
“For a long time I refused to believe the many rumors about the bad things people said he was doing,” Andrade continued. “Eventually I saw them for myself and I realized that I too had been conned. I wish I never laid eyes on him.”
Andrade is one of five former associates of Correia’s who faced indictments during the FBI’s probe into corruption at Fall River’s city hall. Two of the defendants — Antonio Costa and Hildegar Camara — avoided prison time after testifying against Correia during his trial last year.
David Hebert, another middleman who arranged bribes from a marijuana vendor, is awaiting sentencing before a different judge.
Correia himself was sentenced to six years in prison by Woodlock last September, though his arrival in prison has been postponed multiple times while he works on an appeal.
Ben Berke is the South Coast Bureau Reporter for The Public’s Radio. He can be reached at bberke@thepublicsradio.org. Follow him on Twitter @BenBerke6.
