Mayor Correia not resigning, doubling down on his innocence

October 17, 2018 6:22 am

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WLNE) — Mayor Jasiel Correia saying he will not resign after being arrested by the FBI last Thursday. He doubled down on what he said outside of Federal Court last week, at a press conference Tuesday morning.

It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for Mayor Jasiel Correia to have stepped down before tonight’s council vote. But in a bizarre twist, he gave a 20 minute Power Point presentation trying to show the entire investigation was politically motivated.

The following images include the Power Point presented at today’s meeting.

Correia was met with some support as he refused to step out of the spotlight following his arrest.

“A lot of people wouldn’t do this. A lot of politicians would run and hide and would be worried about statements they were going to make in the press,” Mayor Correia says.

In his first public appearance since he was arrested, he’s once again denying the federal charges against, saying the 18 month investigation has always been politically motivated.

“We had a former District Attorney upset that a 23 year old beat them. We had my most recent opponent place their entire campaign on the fact that I would be indicted. This from day 1 began as a political attack on somebody that was challenging the norms in Fall River,” he says.

Correia is accused of scamming investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s all tied to an app he created call SnoOwl. Correia gave a 20 minute Power Point presentation, in his mind proving the app was real and to de-bunk the feds’ allegation it was all a scheme to fund his lavish lifestyle.

“Was this app real? I think so. I know so. The people who had the app know it was real,” Correia insists.

Correia’s attorneys may not be real happy with him after today’s presentation. He admitted he was going off the script they prepared for him. They wouldn’t take questions outside of the press conference.

Correia also didn’t answer reporter’s questions or address whether or not he spent investors’ money, like the FBI says he did.