Villamaino, who resigned amid an investigation into phony absentee ballot votes allegedly intended to tip the polls in his favor in the race for 2nd Hampden District state representative, was being booked at the East Longmeadow police department.
Former East Longmeadow selectman Enrico P. Villamaino III and his wife Courtney Llewellyn.
EAST LONGMEADOW — Massachusetts State Police on Tuesday arrested former East Longmeadow Selectmen Chairman Enrico "Jack" Villaimaino III at his office at the state Department of Transportation in Boston on suspicion of voter fraud, according to Hampden Country District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni.
Villamaino, who resigned from the board amid the investigation into phony absentee ballot votes allegedly intended to tip the polls in his favor in the race for 2nd Hampden District state representative, was being booked at the East Longmeadow police department Tuesday afternoon.
Villamaino was pitted against Longmeadow Republican Marie Angelides in the state primary before the voter fraud investigation became public and Villamaino's campaign basically imploded.
His new wife and suspended East Longmeadow public television employee Courtney Llewellyn was not arrested but surrendered herself and was arraigned in Hampden Superior Court on Tuesday on 12 criminal counts all related to voter fraud.
Mastroianni said she was released on $50,000 surety bail after pleading not guilty to nine counts of absentee voting violations, one count of illegal voting or attempting to vote illegally, one count of interfering with an election official, and minor larceny, relating to the alleged theft of the absentee ballots.
The two were suspected of lifting hundreds of absentee ballot applications from the Town Clerk's office and casting at least a portion after changing voters' affiliations from Democrat to unenrolled, Mastroianni said.
"The nine counts were a random sampling of the behavior we suspect here. There likely were many more examples," Mastroianni said, remaining tight-lipped about Villamaino's suspected involvement in the alleged scheme, since Villamaino is not scheduled to appear in court until Wednesday morning.
The scandal prompted state election officials to ascend on the polling station in East Longmeadow for the primary, plus a reshuffling of the Board of Selectmen and a special election to elect two new members on Nov. 20.
Certain counts against Llewellyn, who married Villamaino in the midst of the investigation, carry five-year maximum prison terms and fines of up to $10,000.