FAIR GAME

One of the Youngest Mayors Ever Loses His Corruption Case Appeal

Jasiel Corriea was found guilty of defrauding investors and soliciting bribes from weed companies.

A former rising star in the Democratic Party lost his case in a federal appeals court on Tuesday, with the judge deciding to uphold extortion and fraud convictions against him. Jasiel Corriea made waves in 2016 when he was elected as mayor of Fall River, Massachusetts, at just 23-years-old, and garnered further national attention when he was indicted and found guilty of defrauding investors and soliciting bribes from weed companies looking to do business in his city shortly after he took office. Corriea maintained his innocence, with his lawyers calling the trial an “unfair smear campaign” in the courtroom. “Even though the challenged comments may have suggested that the voters of Fall River had been duped, nothing in the record suggests that invoking the plight of those voters would have clouded the jury’s ability to weigh the evidence fairly,” wrote Judge Bruce Selya in a court decision. The ex-mayor has been in prison since April, where he will continue to serve the remainder of his six-year prison sentence.