Fall River’s ex-mayor to face court in fraud case
After he was elected mayor of Fall River at just 23 years old, it seemed Jasiel Correia’s political career had nowhere to go but up. Bright and dynamic, Correia charmed voters by portraying himself as a successful entrepreneur who could revive the struggling old mill city.
Prosecutors say in reality he was a fraud and a thief.
Correia heads to trial this month on charges that he stole more than $230,000 from investors in a smartphone app he created to pay for things like a Mercedes, casino trips and adult entertainment. As mayor, he’s accused of convincing his chief of staff to give him half of her salary in order to keep her city job and extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from marijuana businesses seeking to operate there.
The trial will be one of the first to be held in Boston’s federal court since the start of the coronavirus crisis.
Prosecutors will try to show that Correia swindled investors just like his critics say he smooth-talked voters into entrusting him with the city.
“My husband says it best: He could convince the pope that there’s no God,” said Linda Pereira, a Fall River city councilor whom Correia defeated to be re-elected mayor in 2017.
Even as Correia’s former chief of staff and three others have pleaded guilty in the extortion scheme, the former mayor, now 29, has remained defiant. He has denied any wrongdoing, insisted the app designed to help businesses connect with consumers was legitimate and blamed the charges on political foes who want to bring him down.
Correia’s name is on the defense’s witness list, but it remains unclear whether he will actually testify.
Correia has been outspoken since his 2018 arrest. He walked reporters through a PowerPoint presentation to rebut the allegations days after the first charges were brought, and participated in a documentary series executive-produced by Mark Wahlberg about his tumultuous political career.
“If I’m doing something wrong, come and get me. Go ahead and do it. But I didn’t do anything wrong,” Correia said in the series called “Run This City” that aired on the now-defunct streaming platform Quibi.
“I’m innocent until proven guilty and I’m not going to be proven guilty,” he said.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Tuesday. Correia faces wire fraud, extortion conspiracy and bribery charges.