10
SEPTEMBER 7, 2019
paign to turn his job into a per-
sonal ATM, victimizing not only
the specific people involved, but
also the residents of Fall River,”
US Attorney Andrew Lelling
said at a news conference.
Correia began “monetizing
his official position to fund his
lavish lifestyle and mounting le-
gal bills” within months of be-
coming mayor in January 2016,
according to the federal indict-
ment, which charged him with
extortion conspiracy, extortion
aiding and abetting, and brib-
ery.
Four other people are facing
extortion charges, including
Correia’s former chief of staff,
Genoveva Andrade, 48, and a
mayoral aide.
Correia was arrested at 7
a.m. while he was playing ten-
nis at a public court in Fall Riv-
er. At his arraignment, his fa-
ther, girlfriend and other sup-
porters smiled at him when he
was brought in wearing navy
blue pants and a rumpled white
Oxford shirt, his ankles in
shackles.
He pleaded not guilty and
was released on a $25,
bond. Correia faces up to 20
years in prison if he is convict-
ed.
Outside the courthouse, he
thanked the city and his mayor-
al staff, declining to say wheth-
er he would resign. He wore a
green pin with the initials FR,
for Fall River, on his jacket la-
pel.
“I’m going to continue to do
great things for our city and
that’s all I have to say today,”
Correia said.
His lawyer, Kevin Redding-
ton, said the investigation rests
on the word of witnesses with
troubling backgrounds, includ-
ing a drug dealer. Reddington
did not identify that person.
“There is no corroboration,”
uCORREIA
Continued from Page 1
Reddington said. “There is no
legitimate witness other than
somebody who has a deal with
the government.”
Reddington noted that the
arrest occurred 10 days before a
preliminary mayoral election.
Correia, who was recalled in
March but retained his posi-
tion, is running against two oth-
er candidates.
“The timing of this indict-
ment is very troubling,” Red-
dington said. “The city of Fall
River has never been in better
shape. He’s loved by many,
many people.”
On Friday, City Council Pres-
ident Cliff Ponte called on Cor-
reia to step down “temporarily”
in light of his arrest and vowed
that elected officials will work
to “bring as much stability back
and integrity back” to the city as
possible.
“We will get through this,”
Ponte said. “We’ve been here
before and we will get through
it as a community.”
City Councilor Stephen R.
Long said Correia should re-
sign.
“I know he’s innocent until
proven guilty, but there’s a
mountain of evidence at this
point,” he said.
When he was arrested in Oc-
tober, Correia dismissed a cho-
rus of calls for his resignation.
The latest indictment de-
tailed shocking allegations that
portray Correia as a shadowy
figure who sent middlemen to
meet with vendors and demand
campaign contributions and
collect envelopes full of cash.
In June 2018, Correia and
Andrade showed up at one ven-
dor’s store and went to an up-
stairsoffice,whereCorreiasaid
he would provide a letter signal-
ing his “non-opposition” to the
new store in exchange for
$250,000, according to the in-
dictment.
Correia even extorted An-drade, allowing her to keep her
job in exchange for giving him
half of her $78,780 annual sala-
ry, prosecutors said.
Correia was also accused of
extorting one of his middlemen,
a commercial property owner
in the city, who gave the mayor
cash and a $12,000 Rolex watch
in exchange for having the wa-
ter supply in his building acti-
vated.
All marijuana companies
that received host community
agreements in Fall River were
given federal subpoenas to pro-
vide documents about potential
extortion, and some company
leaders were interviewed by the
FBI, according to an attorney
familiar with the city’s appli-
cants.
The non-opposition letters
are key to opening medical
marijuana dispensaries. In Fall
River, the decision over wheth-
er to issue one fell entirely to
Correia, Lelling said. Most mu-
nicipalities also require the ap-
proval of top town or city offi-
cials, giving them sole discre-
tion.
“You have a situation where
local authorities or mayors
could be extremely tempted to
take a bribe or try to extort a
business in exchange” for grant-
ing non-opposition letters, Lel-
ling said.
The state’s Cannabis Control
Commission said it is reviewing
the indictment but had deter-
mined earlier this year that
state law doesn’t currently al-
low them to oversee agree-
ments between vendors and
communities.
Prosecutors did not identify
the marijuana vendors in court
documents Friday, but the in-
dictment detailed when ven-
dors received their non-opposi-
tion letters and what is known
as an “issuance of host agree-
ment,” essentially contracts that
allow a marijuana vendor to setup shop.
Giving Tree Health Center
received its agreement on July
2, 2018 and was the only ven-
dor to receive an agreement on
that date, according to city re-
cords the Globe obtained
through a public records re-
quest. The date was the same
noted in the indictment, which
identified the vendor as MJ
Vendor 2.
That vendor made payments
on the $150,000 bribe demand-
ed by Correia in July and Au-
gust 2018. The vendor also
handed over 12 to 15 pounds of
marijuana.
Blake Mensing, a lawyer for
Giving Tree Health, declined to
comment Friday.
In Fall River Friday, resi-
dents expressed a range of emo-
tions: from disgust and dismay
to enduring affection for a may-
or they say has helped revitalize
the former textile city.
Jennifer Rego, 39, said she
creditsCorreiawiththenew
businesses and stores that have
opened along East Main Street.
“That’s all development
that’s happened since he came
into office,” she said as she sat in
a coffee shop on Purchase
Street. “As of right now, I’m not
ready to throw [Correia] under
the bus until I know a lot more.
He’s not perfect. He’s human.”
Tonya Sousa, a lifelong resi-
dent of the city who was in City
Hall getting a marriage certifi-
cate, said she was horrified by
the latest allegations.
“He has his hands in every-
one’s pockets,” said Sousa, 44. “I
want him out so bad. It makes
me sick.”Kay Lazar and Travis Andersen
of the Globe staff contributed to
this report. Maria Cramer can
be reached at
[email protected]. Follow
her on Twitter
@GlobeMCramer.performed that qualified me
for the work I’ve done for the
city, and the connections I
made then, disqualify me
from participating now in
the inquiry the Mayor has re-
quested,” he said. “Rather
than recuse myself, I am sim-
ply taking a temporary leave
of absence so as not to inter-
fere with the inquiry.”
A spokeswoman for the
administration said that
Christopher stepped down
proactively to avoid an ap-
pearance of a conflict of in-
terest during the review, but
that there was no evidence at
this time of any wrongdoing.
Last week, longtime city
employee John Lynch admit-
ted to taking a $50,000 bribe
to secure a favorable zoning
board vote for the developer,
with the help of one of its
members. The disclosure
raises questions about the
integrity of the zoning board,
whose members are appoint-
ed by the mayor, and the
city’s permitting process.
The city has hired former
federal public corruption
prosecutor Brian Kelly to in-
terview zoning board mem-
bers to learn more about the
incident. Walsh has also
hired law firm Sullivan &
Worcester LLP to take a
broader look at the zoning
board and how it operates.
Meanwhile, US Attorney
Andrew Lelling has said his
criminal investigation is on-
going. Lynch is due to ap-
pear Thursday in federal
court in Boston.
The city records obtained
by the Globe show that
Lynch — who worked for a
separate city department
and had no official role in
the H Street project — used
his city government e-mail to
ask a zoning board lawyer to
place it on the agenda of the
board’s May 9, 2017, meet-
ing for an extension of zon-
ing changes that had ex-
pired. That day, members
voted to deny the extension
after the developer failed to
show up. Despite that denial,
the matter was back on the
agenda at a meeting two
weeks later, and members
voted to grant the extension.
“It continues to be a top
priority to get to the bottom
of what happened here,” said
Samantha Ormsby, a spokes-
woman for Walsh. “We antic-
ipate having our questions
answered through attorney
Brian Kelly’s review, and
Mayor Walsh is taking the
action needed until we know
more.”
City officials initially
balked at a request to release
the records, but turned them
over Friday after a demand
by the Globe’s attorney.uZONING BOARD
Continued from Page 1Christopher had several
ties to key figures in the brib-
ery scheme federal prosecu-
tors announced last week.
According to documents
filed with the Massachusetts
secretary of state, he formed
a real estate company in
2011 with developer Steven
M. Turner. Christopher also
originally designed the con-
do development on H Street
in 2013, which was acquired
by Turner the following year.
After Christopher joined the
inspectional services depart-
ment, Turner kept Christo-
pher’s son James on as the
project’s architect.
Federal prosecutors have
not named the project or the
developer involved in the
bribery, but two people fa-
miliar with the case said it
was the H Street develop-
ment, and Turner. He has
not responded to requests
for comment.
The news of Christopher’s
involvement in the South
Boston development also
brings the scandal to Walsh’s
innercircle.
Since joining Walsh’s cab-
inet in 2014, Christopher
has been a visible, outspo-
ken, even provocative, direc-
tor of inspectional services,
an agency with a broad port-
folio in the city, holding sway
over anything from restau-
rant health inspections to
building plans for skyscrap-
ers. In 2015 he invited TV
crews to film him eating at a
Chipotle restaurant in Cleve-
land Circle that had been the
source of a norovirus out-
break, to show he was com-
fortable that his staff had ad-
dressed the problem.
A longtime family friend
from Dorchester, Christo-
pher’s connection to Walsh
even included buying the
mayor’s former home in
Savin Hill in 2015, paying
$650,000 for the two-family
on Tuttle Street when the
mayor moved to Lower
Mills, records show.
And Walsh has trusted
Christopher to handle some
of the city’s thorniest chal-
lenges. In June, the mayor
tapped him to coordinate the
city’s response to the inter-
section at Massachusetts Av-
enue and Melnea Cass Boule-
vard, known for its concen-
tration of addiction recovery
services in the area.
As public concern grew
about the opioid addicts who
gather near the intersection,
Walsh said that he had
tapped Christopher to coor-
dinate services to the area
because “I know he’ll get it
done.”Tim Logan can be reached at
[email protected].
Follow him on Twitter at
@bytimlogan.Huffman described how she be-
came entangled in the cheating
scandal and expressed “deep
and abiding shame over what I
have done.”
Her letter was filed in court
Friday, along with a memoran-
dum by her lawyers arguing
that a just sentence would be
one year of probation, 250
hours of community service,
and a $20,000 fine.
They also filed 27 additional
letters of support for Huffman,
including ones written by her
husband, actor William H. Ma-
cy, and her former “Desperate
Housewives” costar, Eva Longo-
ria.
Huffman was among 50
people, including celebrities,
coaches, and high-powered fi-
nanciers, charged with partici-
pating in the scheme, in which
wealthy parents allegedly paid
bribes ranging from $15,000 to
$1.2 million to help their chil-
dren get into some of the na-
tion’s top colleges.
The money was funneled
through a bogus charity created
by William “Rick” Singer, a col-
lege counselor and the scheme’s
uHUFFMAN
Continued from Page 1
admitted ringleader. In some
instances, parents allegedly
paid him to have someone else
take their children’s SAT or ACT
exams or correct their answers
afterward. In others, parents al-
legedly paid him to bribe coach-
es to designate their children as
athletic recruits for sports they
didn’t play, helping their chanc-
es at admission.
“The factual story is that I
didn’t go shopping for a college
counselor to find out how to rig
a SAT score,” Huffman wrote in
her three-page letter. She said
her daughter, Sophia, had been
diagnosed with learning dis-
abilities as a child and she hired
Singer for guidance and exper-
tise on how to apply to college
because he had been recom-
mended as “one of the best ex-
perts in LA.”
Huffman said her daughter
was passionate about majoring
in theater, but over time Singer
told her that if her math SAT
scores didn’t improve dramati-
cally, none of the colleges she
was interested in would even
let her audition. She said she
was shocked when Singer told
her he could have a proctor
bump up her daughter’s testscores. She said she weighed his
offer for six weeks before agree-
ing to it.
“As warped as this sounds
now, I honestly began to feel
that maybe I would be a bad
mother if I didn’t do what Mr.
Singer was suggesting,” Huff-
man wrote. She said she was
haunted by her decision after-
ward and opted not to pay Sing-
er to boost her other daughter’s
scores.
“In my desperation to be a
good mother, I talked myself in-
to believing that all I was doing
was giving my daughter a fair
shot,” Huffman wrote. Later,
she said she realized she had
betrayed her daughter, who
was unaware of what she had
done.
“When my daughter looked
at me and asked with tears
streaming down her face, ‘Why
didn’t you believe in me? Why
didn’t you think I could do it on
my own?’ I had no adequate an-
swer for her. I could only say, ‘I
am sorry. I was frightened and I
was stupid.’ ”
In his letter to the judge, Ma-
cy wrote that Huffman is “still
an amazing mother.”
“I don’t know where shefinds the strength, because as
much as she tries to put on a
good face, I can see the pain,”
he wrote. “She hurt her daugh-
ters. It was the one thing she
swore never to do, and she did
it.”
Macy said it was not clear
whether Huffman would re-
sume her acting career, noting
that she had received no job of-
fers since her arrest.He ended the letter by writ-
ing “every good thing in my life
is because of Felicity Huffman.”
Longoria, who starred with
Huffman in the television se-
ries, also wrote to Talwani, ref-
erencing Huffman’s “gentle
character and kind heart” and
saying that Huffman fought for
her to be paid more on the
show.
“Her humor always madethings better, but it was her
heart and intentions to make
sure I was always OK that I re-
member most,” she said in the
letter.
Under a plea agreement,
prosecutors had initially indi-
cated they would recommend
that Huffman serve at least four
months in jail for conspiracy to
commit mail fraud and honest
services mail fraud. But in Fri-
day’s memorandum, prosecu-
tors shaved several months off
that request, noting that one
month in jail would be suffi-
cient “while recognizing Huff-
man’s nearly immediate accep-
tance of responsibility, individ-
ual circumstances, and
culpability relative to her co-
conspirators.”
Prosecutors are also asking
for Huffman to be placed on
probation for one year and
fined $20,000.Shelley Murphy can be reached
at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter
@shelleymurph. Danny
McDonald can be reached at
[email protected].
Follow him on Twitter
@Danny__McDonald.Walsh aide
takes a leave
amid probe
Correia accused of extortion
JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF
Genoveva Andrade, former chief of staff for Mayor Jasiel F. Correia II, is also facing extortion charges.
Prosecutors urge 1-month jail term for Huffman
JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF
Felicity Huffman told a judge Friday she felt “deep shame’’
for her actions. Above, Huffman exited court in April.RELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws