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MASSTERLIST
OCT. 18, 2012 EAST LONGMEADOW, YOU WIN TODAY: Let me introduce you to Enrico J. "Jack" Villamaino III the former East Longmeadow select board chair, former candidate for State Rep and probably soon-to-be-former MBTA employee. He's all these formerlies because he was arrested in the Transportation building lobby Tuesday on charges of vote-rigging his own Rep race back at East Longmeadow Town Hall. Seems he's accused of switching a bunch of party affiliations and messing around with absentee ballots. How was he doing this? Glad you asked: he had help from a former local reporter who the DA alleges traded favorable coverage of Villamaino for a sweet municipal job with computer training. That training came in handy after-hours at the Town Hall when she allegedly perpetrated the fraudulent dirty work. It gets better though. Villamaino then pulled "a Lantigua" and married her after their homes were searched, perhaps in an attempt to avoid her testifying against him. Villamaino's bail is set at $100,000 and he's stuck with a GPS monitor since he was carrying a bag and his passport and might have been headed to Switzerland. Oh, and he taunted investigators by pasting his own face onto a photo of Leonardo DiCaprio's body from Catch me if you Can.
This guy's got a future in politics.
DA: Ex-East Longmeadow Selectman Enrico Villamaino III was carrying passport and talking of going to Switzerland
By JackFlynn, The Republican
on October 17, 2012
Enrico Villamaino IIIThe Republican | John Suchocki
Hampden Superior Court in Springfield is where former East Longmeadow Selectman Enrico Villamaino III Wednesday denied voter fraud charges.
Staff photo by John Suchocki
SPRINGFIELD — Not long after state investigators targeted him in a ballot-tampering scheme, former East Longmeadow Selectman Enrico J. Villamaino III posted a photo from the movie “Catch Me If You Can” on his website – with his face superimposed on the body of the film’s star, Leonardo DiCaprio.
Eight weeks later, Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni the cyber challenge Wednesday while Villamaino was being arraigned in Superior Court on a 12-count voting fraud indictment.
“He showed an almost flaunting arrogance,” Mastroianni said.
Citing the clothing bag and passport Villamaino was carrying when state police arrested him Tuesday, Mastroianni requested $100,000 cash bail to keep the former two-term selectman from fleeing the country.
“He was talking about going to Switzerland,” the district attorney said.
Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder set bail at $10,000, but directed Villamaino, 35, an employee of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, to remain in home confinement, with electronic monitoring, until his trial.
“I take (the voting fraud charges) very seriously; this strikes at the very heart of our democracy,” Kinder said.
Handcuffed and wearing a blue blazer, the defendant sat impassively through the hour-long hearing, casting occasional glances at television cameras in the media gallery. Arrested in the lobby at the MBTA headquarters in Boston, Villamaino was returned to East Longmeadow late Tuesday afternoon to spend the night in the police lockup.
Courtney Llewellyn
File photo | The Republican
Courtney Llewellyn, his co-defendant and recently acquired spouse, pleaded innocent Tuesday to the same 12 charges, and was released on $50,000 surety bail.
Llewellyn, 27, a special projects manager for the town’s cable television access station, married Villamaino in August after their homes were searched by state police investigating the voting fraud scandal.
In the first public summary of the ballot-tampering scheme, Mastroianni said the pair plotted to guarantee Villamaino extra votes in the Republican primary for the 2nd Hampden state representative’s seat by changing the party affiliation of more than 250 Democrats to unenrolled, then submitting false absentee ballot requests in their name, Mastroianni said.
The number was significant because the September primary was a rematch of the closely-fought 2010 contest, in which Longmeadow Select Board member Marie Angelides defeated Villamaino by 284 votes; in November, Angelides lost to state Rep. Brian M. Ashe, D-Longmeadow.
While Villamaino masterminded the scheme, the ballot changes were made after hours at Town Hall by Llewellyn, a former reporter for The Reminder newspaper who parlayed favorable stories about Villamaino into a job at Town Hall with his help, Mastroianni said.
At Villamaino’s request, Llewellyn received specialized computer training that helped her switch party affiliations in July for more than 250 town voters, the district attorney said.
In August, when the sheer volume of party-change and absentee ballot requests triggered a state investigation, Villamaino resigned as chairman of the town’s Board of Selectmen and stopped campaigning for the state representative’s seat.
By then, he was displaying “erratic behavior” that puzzled and troubled people who knew him, Mastroianni said.
When investigators first approached Villamaino about the ballot tampering, he “tried to push suspicion” toward Llewellyn – then, a few weeks later, married her in a hastily arranged private ceremony, Mastroianni said.
Later, explaining his decision to get married, Villamaino told a witness that “she holds the keys to his jail cell,” according to Mastroianni, who said the defendant still had a long-time girlfriend in eastern Massachusetts.
Two hours before the service, the groom-to-be was checking websites for advice on getting an annulment or divorce, Mastroianni said.
Llewellyn appeared to be “infatuated” with her co-defendant, creating a relationship in which “she was willing to do whatever he wanted,” the district attorney said.
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/10/former_east_longmeadow_selectm_2.html
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