Enrico John Villamaino III — Republican candidate for state representative — pleaded not guilty to nine felony counts of voter fraud Wednesday. We discussed his behavior last August here on BMG.
The Boston Globe reports in today’s hard-copy edition that Mr. Villamaino and his wife, Courtney Llewellyn, are each charged with nine felony counts as well as three lesser counts each.
In a bizarre twist, Mr. Villamaino and Ms. Llewelln apparently married in hopes of using spousal privilege to protect each other. According to the Globe piece:
Villamaino and Llewellyn married several weeks ago amid the investigation in an alleged attempt “to frustrate the investigation,” presumably to invoke spousal privilege in the event prosecutors tried to get one to testify against the other, [Hampden District Attorney Mark G.] Mastroianni said.
Mastroianni said witnesses allegedly saw Villamaino a couple of hours before his wedding searching online about how to secure an annulment or divorce.
Ah yes, another display of the profound commitment to the sanctity of voting and marriage displayed by the Massachusetts GOP.
…should only cover actions and circumstances during the marriage. Anything occuring before the marriage should not be protected.
It seems that Mr. Villamaino and Ms. Llewellyn created a sham marriage for the primary purpose of impeding the investigation. The efficacy of that cynical act is irrelevant, in my view.
The point is that the Massachusetts GOP seems to provide a welcome hearth for such cynics.
This will be easy for Mastroianni.