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Villamaino pleads guilty, receives jail time

Date: 8/7/2013

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

SPRINGFIELD – Former East Longmeadow Selectman Enrico “Jack” Villamaino was sentenced to a one year split prison sentence on Aug. 7 for his admitted execution of a scheme to defraud the voting system during his 2012 bid for state representative.

Villamaino will serve four months at the Hampden County House of Corrections and the remaining eight months of his sentence will be suspended. Following that, he will face a year of probation.

Villamaino also received convictions on the felony counts.

Judge Mary-Lou Rup explained her decision was “in the mid-range of sentencing guidelines” and took into consideration Villamaino’s age and lack of a record as well as the seriousness of the crimes.

She said while his actions did not physically harm anyone, the confidence of the voters that their elections would be “free, fair and uncorruptable was no doubt eroded.”

Two days earlier, Villamaino pled guilty to 11 charges related to the voter fraud case in which the prosecution alleged he attempted to steal votes through the use of forged absentee ballots that were illegally obtained. The charges included felony counts for perjury, forgery and conspiracy.

Hampden County District Attorney Mark Mastroianni asked Rup to sentence Villamaino to 12 months in the Hampden County House of Corrections, as well as probation on the condition of a guilty finding for felony counts. L. Jeffrey Meehan, Villamaino’s attorney, asked for a four-month jail sentence with the felonies continued without a finding only to be dismissed upon completion of his probation.

“The judge, in considering all the facts, I think, clearly did recognize the seriousness of the offense,” Mastroianni said. “She did not impose the length of the sentence that we had requested, however, in recognizing the seriousness of the offense, the judge did impose guilty finding on the serious charges of perjury and forgery different than what the defense had wanted.”

Villamaino pled guilty to four counts of forgery, four counts of perjury and one count of conspiracy to commit a voting violation – all felonies – as well as misdemeanor charges of larceny under $250 and interfering with election officials on Aug. 5 in Hampden County Superior Court, however, Rup opted to delay sentencing until Aug. 7.

Villamaino, along with his alleged co-conspirator and wife Courtney Llewellyn, were accused of changing the voter registration statuses of more than 280 registered Democrats to unenrolled with the intention of taking out absentee ballots in their names and returning those ballots with votes for Villamaino in his race against Longmeadow Selectman Marie Angelides.

Villamaino had previously lost to Angelides by approximately 280 votes the last time the two met in a primary, which was in September 2010.

Mastroianni explained his decision to pursue the sentence he did was based largely on his desire for stricter probation guidelines for Villamaino.

“I wanted there to be probation on some serious charges because that makes probation that much more serious when you’re facing potential serious charges if you violate your terms of probation,” he said.

Mastroianni added that while his original sentence recommendation included jail time on a felony count of conspiracy, Rup opted for probation on that count and instead sentenced him to jail time on one of the misdemeanors.

Villamaino had his bail revoked and been incarcerated since pleading guilty on Aug. 5.

Those two days in jail, plus three extra days of incarceration in connection with the case, will be credited toward his sentence.

When asked by Rup on Aug. 5 why he was changing his plea, Villamaino stated after a brief conference with Meehan, “Because I am [guilty] and I hope to receive leniency and hope to be able to have a second chance.”

East Longmeadow town officials voiced relief in the case being resolved.

“It’s good to be getting this behind us,” Town Clerk Thomas Florence said. “We will never understand why it happened, but we certainly want to acknowledge the District Attorney’s office and the Secretary of State’s Office for working as efficiently and precisely as they did.”

Board of Selectmen Chair Paul Federici, who served on the board with Villamaino when he resigned in August 2012 in the midst of the investigation, commented, “It has been such a long road for this town. We’ve been dealing with this for almost a year. Two hundred and eighty-four people were directly affected, but it had an effect on the entire town and it’s good to finally see some resolution to it.

“The final step, obviously, is to resolve the matter of the other person involved [Llewellyn] and once that happens, I think the town can finally move past this completely,” he continued.

Florence said the crimes committed by Villamaino were serious, but stressed it did not mean the entire voting system was corrupt.

“[Villamaino] took away your confidence in what is your democratic right, but it’s important to remember that this was an isolated incident,” he said.

Federici said he believes the town has already succeeded in regaining voters’ trust through a number of elections that have gone off without issue in the meantime, including the election of two new selectmen.

He also said he hoped Villamaino would emerge from the incident with a new outlook.

“As far as Jack is concerned, he said he hoped for a chance to start over and I certainly hope he has that chance,” Federici said. “Everyone deserves a second chance, I believe.”

Llewellyn was not present at Villamaino’s sentencing.

She appeared in court prior to Villamaino’s plea on Aug. 5 and had her case continued to Aug. 28 for a final pre-trial conference.

The two sat on opposite sides of the aisle in the courtroom prior to their cases being heard and she did not stay to hear Villamaino’s plea, leaving the courtroom immediately following her proceedings.

Villamaino was initially charged on Oct. 16, 2012 with 12 counts, including illegal absentee voting, interfering with election officials, larceny and attempting to unlawfully vote on and further charged with an additional 16 counts of attempt to unlawfully vote absentee, four counts of forgery, four counts of perjury, one count of conspiracy to commit illegal voting and one count of conspiracy to commit an absentee voting violation on Jan. 10.

All remaining charges would be dropped in accordance with the plea deal.

Mastroianni called the effects of Villamaino’s actions “far-reaching” beyond the residents whose party affiliations were changed and “purely offensive and abusive to the democratic process,” explaining it has put questions in the minds of East Longmeadow residents as to whether or not their elections would be fair and equitable.

Mastroianni also argued that Villamaino’s actions were not due to a momentary lapse of judgment, but rather part of a scheme that required extensive planning that may have been up to a year in the making. He went on to say that Villamaino only abandoned his plot when it was clear the authorities were investigating, not because of any revelation that what he did was wrong.

Meehan argued against felony convictions for his client, stating a felony would “attach a stigma” to Villamaino for years to come and asked Rup not to “scar him and mark him for the rest of his life with a felony.”

He went on to explain that after his incarceration, Villamaino hoped to move to California where his two younger brothers live to start a new life and a felony conviction would limit his options. He added that he and Villamaino had discussed community service options as opposed to jail time, but the possibility of a felony conviction limited his options in that regard.

Meehan noted his client’s ties to the community and also the fact that he has no criminal record. He argued that Villamaino made a mistake due to his own ambitions to have a career in public office.

He added that Villamaino, who was the oldest of three boys in a third-generation Italian-American family, sought the approval of his grandfather, who Meehan said often ridiculed Villamaino after he previously failed in attempts to gain seats in the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives.

He also stated that a psychiatrist who spoke with Villamaino said that he did not have any psychological disorders, but he suffers from anxiety and bouts of depression and took failure very hard, which resulted in his decision to attempt to cheat the voting system.

Citing a legal precedent, Meehan said state Rep. Stephen Smith of Everett received a four-month prison sentence in April. Smith was actually successful in casting illegal ballots in order to win two elections. Villamaino, he pointed out, was not successful.

Mastroianni admitted on Aug. 5 that perception of the crime among those affected varied and his recommendation on sentencing represented what he believed to be “the median” of what those people wanted or expected.

Victim impact statements from three of those who had their affiliations changed highlighted that divide.

East Longmeadow resident Patricia Ryan told Rup Villamaino stole her vote and she was shocked that Villamaino “deceived his own town where people put their trust in him” and asked that he receive jail time.

Mastroianni read a statement from Victoria Gallagher, another East Longmeadow resident who declined to speak before the court.

Gallagher characterized Villamaino’s actions as being “as serious as using my identity for monetary gain” and asked the judge to issue a sentence that included enough jail time to show him and others that attempts to defraud the voting system were serious crimes.

East Longmeadow resident Scott Jelescheff, however, voiced a differing opinion, stating he did not feel as if he was a victim and did not suffer in the short term or the long term as a result of Villamaino’s actions. He also said it was clear to him Villamaino’s scheme would have never succeeded.

“I was concerned, however, to see the fervor with which the District Attorney’s office prosecuted this case,” he said. “I know that it’s unusual to have the county’s top law enforcement officer [Mastroianni] prosecuting a case and that set off a prosecutorial frenzy and media frenzy.”

He went on to criticize the District Attorney’s office for the manner in which it pursued the investigation and the media attention the case received.

He stated his belief that whether or not Villamaino went to jail, the damage to his credibility, as well as his political and professional careers, was irreversible and punishment enough.