The city council in Fall River, MA voted Wednesday night to hire a Boston law firm and enforce the temporary removal of its mayor Jasiel Correia.
After the city council convened a private meeting Wednesday night, attorney Lauren Goldberg of KP Law, P.C., briefly spoke to the press. Acting mayor Cliff Ponte and city council vice-president Pam Laliberte-Lebeau stood behind her.
"The Fall River City Council voted tonight to proceed with litigation to enforce its Sep 10th 2019 emergency order," Goldberg said.
The decision to hire legal counsel came after Correia refused to temporarily step down as mayor following the emergency order, saying the vote had no legs to stand on.
City councilor Shawn Cadime says that the scandals surrounding the twice-arrested mayor have destabilized the city.
"I think the goals for us and the city council is to kind of stabilize the situation," Cadime said before the private meeting. "[We want to] get somebody who’s in a leadership position at least until the voters have their day again to vote in November."
The mayor was indicted on a total of 24 counts for allegedly extorting marijuana vendors for cash and defrauding investors through an app he started before he became mayor.
Earlier this week, Correia made it to the November election ballot with just 21% of the vote.
