Metro
THE BOSTON GLOBE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/METROB
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Our vaunted democracy is
no match for a politician
utterly bereft of scruples,
not to mention shame.
To illustrate this sad
fact, let us go not to the
White House, but to Fall
River’s City Hall (though
the parallels are striking).
Word came down on Monday that Mayor
Jasiel Correia, facing multiple federal indict-
ments for fraud, bribery, and tax evasion,
will take a leave of absence from his job
leading the city where, if federal prosecutors
are to be believed, he made a clumsy art of
shaking down marijuana vendors and others
for almost $600,000 in bribes.
Because he is taking a leave rather than
resigning, Correia will continue to collect
his $119,000 annual salary until a new may-
or (one can dream) takes office next year.
Of course he will. Brazen doesn’t begin to
capture Correia’s alleged exploits. He did not
hide behind middlemen or couch his bribe
demands in ways that might give him plau-
sible deniability, according to prosecutors.
No, a September indictment alleges the
Democrat did much of his shaking down
personally. Prosecutors say he also extorted
money from his partners in crime — people
whose testimony could send him to prison.
And he did so even though he knew he was
already under investigation by the feds, who
charged him with defrauding investors in a
tech startup. (In the 2018 indictment, prose-
cutors said he pocketed that money to spend
on a Mercedes-Benz, casinos, and adult en-
tertainment.)
But, try as they might, people in Fall Riv-
er — or at least those troubled by such alle-
gations — could not rid themselves of the
mayor. He was reelected in 2017 even
though voters knew he was under federal
scrutiny. He survived a March recall vote
even though more than 60 percent of voters
wanted him gone. (In a five-candidate race,
Correia was both recalled and narrowly re-
elected.) And last week, a court ruled that
the City Council could not remove him ei-
ther.
Another mayor — say, somebody with a
capacity for embarrassment or a moral com-
pass — might have slunk away long before
now. Not Correia. He may have been unfath-
omably daft when it came to his alleged
crimes, but he knows the weaknesses in the
political system, and how ill-equipped it is
to thwart a politician who is nakedly self-in-
terested and unconcerned about appearing
utterly corrupt. (Sound familiar?)
He would even bend the electoral process
— that last line of defense — to his will.
(How about now?)
After placing a distant second in Septem-
ber’s mayoral primary, Correia hatched a
scheme to win reelection: “I still need your
help to win in an untraditional way,” he told
fans at a gathering, asking them to keep his
plan under wraps, according to a recording
obtained by the Fall River Herald News. Un-
traditional is one word for it: Correia want-
ed to recruit a write-in candidate solely to
split the vote so he could win without a ma-
jority again.
“It’s important because it makes it a
multi-person race,” said Correia, according
to the Herald News. “I think everybody can
read between the lines — a multi-person
race like the recall.”
In a remarkable coincidence, a write-in
candidate announced a run for mayor on
Wednesday: City Administrator Cathy Ann
Viveiros. At an afternoon press conference,
Viveiros, who has run for the office unsuc-
cessfully five times, insisted she was coming
forward to give voters an alternative to
School Committee member Paul Coogan,
who topped the primary ballot, and to carry
on the progress the city has made under
Correia.
Asked whether she was part of Correia’s
scheme to win reelection, Viveiros said she
was “absolutely... an independent individ-
ual.” She said Correia — who vowed to sus-
pend his political campaign — “is no longer
a candidate on that ballot in the upcoming
election.”
Viveiros seems to have an awful lot of
faith in Correia, whose name will in fact be
on that ballot in three weeks, campaign sus-
pension or not. History shows it’s not a faith
anyone in the city should share.
Correia probably won’t be able to game
his way out of a federal prosecution, but he’s
done a pretty good job so far of blowing
through political checks on his power.
Why would he stop now?
Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham can be
reached at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter @GlobeAbraham.
TheCorreia
problem
YvonneAbraham
Business
PAGES B7-10
Forbreakingnews,goto
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business
By Michael Levenson
GLOBE STAFF
The many high-tech tools de-
signed to prevent shark attacks
have limited effectiveness and can
create a false sense of security, ac-
cording to a blunt report released
Wednesday that warns the best
way to avoid an attack is to swim
in shallow water or stay out of the
ocean altogether.
The analysis, commissioned by
a group that includes six Cape Cod
towns, found that drones, sonar
buoys, nets, electromagnetic an-
klets, and other products each
have drawbacks and can be costly
and require extensive permitting.
Ultimately, “There is no way to
make the ocean 100 percent safe
for people who choose to enter it,”
said Brian Carlstrom, superinten-
dent of the Cape Cod National Sea-
shore, which commissioned the
$50,000 study along with
Chatham, Truro, Orleans, East-
ham, Wellfleet, Provincetown, and
the Atlantic White Shark Conser-
vancy.
He said Cape officials will use
the report as a baseline to guide
future investments in shark-deter-
rent technology, even though it
didn’t contain any “aha or gotcha
moments.”
The findings, produced by the
Woods Hole Group, an environ-
mental consulting firm, come a
year after Arthur Medici, a 26-
year-old boogie boarder, was at-
tacked by a shark off Wellfleet and
died before rescuers could get him
to a hospital. Medici was the first
person killed by a shark in Massa-
chusetts since 1936.
A month before his death, how-
ever, a New York doctor swim-
SHARK, Page B4By Kay Lazar
GLOBE STAFF
Many parents in Boston — espe-
cially mothers of very young chil-
dren — are unable to work because
they can’t find affordable, quality
child care, according to a new sur-
vey of city residents to be released
Thursday.
The survey, conducted by the
Mayor’s Office of Women’s Ad-
vancement, found that more than
one-quarter of stay-at-home par-ents, the vast majority of them
women, couldn’t work because they
lacked day care. Nearly 60 percent
of those parents cited cost as the
biggest obstacle. Parents of chil-
dren under 2 had the hardest time
finding available slots.
“Child care is a disaster even for
the ‘middle class,’ ” one East Boston
resident wrote in the comments
section. “It’s unsustainable. We
have no savings, no credit, and all
my friends are in the same situa-
tion.”
In a modest first step to address
the child care gap, the Walsh ad-
ministration is planning to an-nounce on Thursday a pilot pro-
gram to assist home-based child-
care providers in Boston.
“One part of the solution is to
support the workforce, to help
them run stable businesses to in-
crease the supply,” said Tania Del
Rio, executive director of the Office
of Women’s Advancement.
Massachusetts is the second
most expensive state for child care
in the United States, with families
paying nearly $21,000 annually for
just one infant in a day-care center,
according to a 2019 report from the
Economic Policy Institute.
CHILD CARE, Page B6Te c h n o
match
against
sharks
Study warns tools
may mask dangers
Cityworkingtolowerday-carehurdles
High cost cuts out
many, survey finds
PHOTOS BY NIC ANTAYA FOR THE BOSTON GLOBEAlong the twisting, tumbling Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, the
colors of the season dazzle. The contrast is especially noticeable at the Sugar Hill Scenic Vista
(middle), with only the pines, firs, and spruces holding onto their green.INTHEWHITES,ACOLOREXPLOSION
By Danny McDonald
GLOBE STAFF
An accountant for former state
senator Brian A. Joyce, who was
found dead last year while facing a
federal indictment on corruption
charges, was convicted by a feder-
al jury Wednesday of conspiring
with the Milton Democrat to de-
fraud the IRS of about $600,000,
prosecutors said.
John H. Nardozzi, 67, a certi-
fied public accountant from
Waltham, was convicted after a
seven-day trial of defrauding the
IRS from 2011 through 2014, said
a statement from the US attor-
ney’s office for Massachusetts.
Prosecutors said Nardozzi ma-
nipulated income that should
have been reported on Joyce’s cor-
porate tax return by applying it to
Joyce’s personal tax return.
Nardozzi was also convicted of
falsely creating a single-employ-
ment pension fund for Joyce and
his wife that they were not enti-
tled to, according to the US attor-
ney’s office. Through such a
scheme, Nardozzi enabled the
couple to defer taxes on about
NARDOZZI, Page B4CPAfaces
prisonfor
fraudin
Joycecase
Helped the late state
senator avoid taxes