Angelides, a virtual unknown, beat Villamaino in the 2010 primary for the same seat by just 284 votes; she was beaten by Democrat Brian Ashe of Longmeadow.
EAST LONGMEADOW – Selectmen Chairman Enrico “Jack” Villamaino III left the state Friday as the town voter fraud probe continued following the search of his home three weeks before the Sept. 6 primary.
A mysterious quadrupling of absentee ballot applications and a flurry of party affiliations shuffling led state and local police to execute search warrants at Town Hall and at the home of Villamaino, a Republican running a tight race for the state representative 2nd Hampden District against Longmeadow candidate Marie Angelides.
Angelides beat Villamaino in the 2010 primary for the same seat by just 284 votes. She, in turn, was beaten by Democrat Brian Ashe, of Longmeadow, in the general election.
Enrico P. Villamaino IIIState and local police executed search warrants Thursday at Town Hall, and, according to a law enforcement official, at the homes of Villamaino and Courtney Lllewlyn, a special projects manager for the town public access cable television station.
In an email obtained by The Republican, Selectman James Driscoll alerted department heads that Lllewlyln was suspended with pay on Monday in connection with the investigation. She did not return calls from a reporter Thursday or Friday.
The investigation, which now encompasses state and local police and the offices of the Hampden district attorney and secretary of the commonwealth, was triggered when 445 applications for absentee ballots poured in – four times that of the last election – and some voters’ political affiliations were changed to GOP alliances without their consent.
Even before the police searches occurred, Villamaino refused comment and has since ignored inquiries from reporters.
On Friday, a reporter visited the address he lists as his home on the state election website – 834 Somers Road – and was told by a woman who emerged in the driveway that it is his grandmother’s home.
“We don’t know where he is,” she said.
Down the street at 437 Somers Road, where law enforcement officials say Villamaino lives, no one answered the door. Another law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said Villamaino was served the search warrant at his father’s home at 49 Kennedy Drive in Enfield, Conn.
A woman who answered the door at that address said Villamaino was staying there but wasn’t in at the moment. A car matching the make and model of Villamaino’s Honda was parked in the driveway.
Hampden District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni has said the investigation is “very active” but would not provide a timeline for when the probe may yield results.
“Investigations like this include many interviews and poring through hundreds of documents. We’re going to take it where it leads us. Their deadline is not our deadline,” Mastroianni said in a previous interview.
Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin has called the situation a “brazen” attempt at voter fraud and intends to send state elections officials to East Longmeadow’s single polling site to monitor the voting process on Sept. 6.
Galvin spokesman Brian McNiff said it will be the first time in his memory that the state will send watchdogs to Western Massachusetts to monitor balloting under these circumstances.