Fall River City Council Taking Legal Action Against Mayor Correia

FALL RIVER — The push to temporarily oust Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia from office will continue after Correia refused to comply with a City Council vote last week to hand over the keys to the Mayor’s Office.

WCVB reports that the City Council said Wednesday that it plans to bring Mayor Correia to court to force his temporary removal from office.

Last week, Councilors voted 8-1 to temporarily remove Correia from office while his legal issues are resolved. Correia refused to honor the Council vote, calling it “unbinding.”

The 27-year-old embattled mayor was arrested for the second time in less than a year on September 6 on an 11-count federal indictment charging him with extorting marijuana vendors seeking to do business in the city. In October of 2018, Correia was arrested for the first time on a 13-count federal indictment for allegedly defrauding investors in his SnoOwl app out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

On Tuesday, Correia edged mayoral candidate Erica Scott-Pacheco in the preliminary election by 600 votes, collecting 2,777 votes for 21-percent of the unofficial final tally. Candidate Paul Coogan was the clear favorite, however, taking in 8,273 votes for 62-percent.

The final election in Fall River is November 5.