Fall River City Council to decide Correia’s future as mayor

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WLNE) – Tuesday, the city council in Fall River will decide what to do with its embattled mayor. Jasiel Correia was arrested last week by the FBI. Even though his time in office has been short, he’s had his share of problems, nothing to the level of an arrest by the feds but still, trouble always seems to find him.

Mayor Correia has defiantly said he will not step down. So far he’s been insisting he’s innocent, ever since this FBI probe started a year and a half ago. Despite the dark cloud hanging over his office, he was elected to a second term as mayor but he’s been making headlines long before that.

Mayor Jasiel Correia caught in controversy yet again.

“I did nothing wrong,” he said last Thursday after being arraigned.

The youngest mayor in Fall River history has been wrapped up in political problems before. In 2014 as a student at Providence College and City Councilor he was at odds with then mayor Will Flanagan after signing a petition for Flanagan to be re-called. Their relationship took a dramatic turn after Correia accused Flanagan of trying to intimidate him with a gun.

“I felt intimidated, anytime you put yourself in a situation where you’re off guard, it’s late at night, you’re outnumbered – 3 individuals against 1 – and now there’s a gun involved,” he said in 2014.

Flanagan was eventually voted out but a special prosecutor found he never threatened Correia.

The underlying re-call issue was over a very un-popular fee on garbage pick-up for residents. Correia hinged his campaign on doing away with those fees.

Last year we learned he was under federal investigation. That investigation came to a head on Thursday morning when he was arrested on 9 counts of fraud and filing false tax returns all connected to Sno Owl, a company he founded.

“If you look at those bogus charges or whatever they’re called, there’s not a single thing that I did wrong as mayor of the City of Fall River,” he said on Thursday.

As for voting out Correia, there is a provision in the city code that allows the council to remove a mayor from office but 7 out of 9 councilors have to approve it. The public will be able to speak at the council meeting tomorrow night.

Correia announced late Monday evening he will make a statement in the morning but didn’t give specifics on what he’ll talk about.

© WLNE/ABC 6 2018