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The following is a statement released by District Attorney Sam Sutter:
On Wednesday afternoon, Fall River Police Chief Dan Racine asked me and my office to take over the investigation he had been conducting concerning the August 14th meeting between Mayor William Flanagan, City Councilor Jasiel Correia and others. After meeting with Chief Racine on Wednesday, I told him that I would consider his request and make a decision by today.
Rather than personally taking over the investigation, I have decided to appoint it to a Special Prosecutor due to the clear appearance of a conflict for me. Mayor William Flanagan was hired by me in late 2006 to work for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office and was sworn in as an assistant district attorney on January 4, 2007. He worked for my office from January 2007 until October 2008. In our political careers, I supported him in his reelection campaigns in 2011 and 2013 and he supported me in my campaign for Congress in 2012. As district attorney and mayor, we continually work closely together on law enforcement issues in Fall River. The appearance of a conflict in any investigation I would lead concerning Mayor William Flanagan is clear.
I have a similar situation with City Councilor Jasiel Correia. I met Councilor Correia when he participated in my free tennis clinics when he was in middle school. In 2006, when I first ran for district attorney, he and his family supported me. When he applied to college in the fall of 2008, I met with him at my office about his college applications and wrote him a letter of recommendation. Consequently, with both the principals involved in this investigation there is a clear appearance of a conflict if I, or any assistant district attorney under my supervision, investigates this matter.
Therefore, I have decided to appoint William H. Connolly, a former state and federal prosecutor, as the special prosecutor for this investigation. Earlier this afternoon, I spoke to the Attorney General’s Office, and they support an independent investigation.
William Connolly has been handling special prosecutions for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office since January, 2013. He began his career in 1997, when he went to work as an assistant district attorney at the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office. In 2002, he accepted a position as an assistant U.S. Attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office. There, he was first a member of the Major Crimes unit; then, worked as a member of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force; and then, was a member of the Economic Crimes Unit. He served in these roles at the United States Attorney’s Office from 2002 to 2009. Mr. Connolly next served as the Managing Director of Stroz Friedberg’s Security and Investigations at their Boston office. In 2012, he opened his own law firm and has been working there since.
As special prosecutor, William Connolly will have complete independence to move forward in this investigation as he deems appropriate. He will have full autonomy to make decisions and draw conclusions, without any input from me or any prosecutor working at the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office. He will have available to him, in order to carry out his investigation, detectives from the State Police Unit assigned to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office. Detectives who are tasked with this duty will report only to the special prosecutor, and their investigation will be under his direction and control. All questions on the status of the investigation must now be directed to the special prosecutor, William Connolly.
