The tawdry tales of the Friends of Karyn Polito
If anybody ever writes a book about the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, they should call it, “The Friends of Karyn Polito.”
If anybody ever writes a book about the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, they should call it, “The Friends of Karyn Polito.”
That would be a play on the title of the classic George V. Higgins novel and movie “The Friends of Eddie Coyle.” It’s about a small-time career grifter who keeps getting mixed up with sleazy criminals who were always jammed up with the law.
Sound familiar?
This month would be a big chapter in that new book, because right now the Friends of Karyn (FOK’s) are paying the price for their tawdry sticky-fingered misdeeds.
Just check out this photo gallery. All these FOK’s are taking the fall right now.
Ex-Fall River mayor Jasiel Correia, set to be sentenced Monday in his fraud case, is pictured with Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito while Correia was still in office. (Contributed photo.)
Let’s start with the former mayor of Fall River, Jasiel Correia. On Monday he’ll be in federal court in Boston for sentencing — the feds want him to do 11 years for running the city of Fall River as a racketeering enterprise, shaking down $600,000 from drug dealers, taking kickbacks from employees, failing to pay income taxes, etc. etc.
In 2016, the woman known to one and all as Pay to Play traveled to Fall River for Jasiel’s first inauguration. She tweeted out multiple pictures of herself with the young Democrat statesman.
“Great to administer the Oath of Office,” she gushed. “Looking forward to working together.”
In 2018, five weeks before his first arrest, Correia endorsed Pay to Play and the failed governor, Charlie Baker, for re-election.
Oddly, Karyn has not written a pre-sentencing letter of support for her pal. But then again, she was also a no-show at last week’s sentencing of another of her FOK’s: ex-Rep. Dave Nangle of Lowell.
Like Correia, Nangle was stealing hot stoves without gloves — and then coming back for the smoke.
When Nangle wasn’t committing wire fraud (10 counts), bank fraud (4 counts), making false statements to a bank (4 counts) and filing false tax returns (5 counts), he was giving $600 to Karyn Polito’s campaign and making TV spots for her re-election effort.
Sadly, Nangle will not be involved in Pay to Play’s next campaign – he’s spending the next 15 months in Club Fed.
Did I mention that in the House, Nangle served as chairman of the Ethics Committee? Of course he did. He’s an FOK.
Have you noticed how much Karyn loves selfies? She used to pose all the time with ex-state trooper Leigha Genduso. Remember her? Leigha was a gangster’s live-in moll who was Karyn’s BFF because they’re both from Shrewsbury.
Genduso became a Mass. State trooper after committing perjury before a federal grand jury investigating her hoodlum sugar daddy.
Finally, this Friend of Karyn admitted to the G-men that she herself was a drug dealer and abuser, not to mention that she laundered money and evaded income taxes (just like those other FOK’s Correia and Nangle).
After admitting all her felonies, this FOK was hired as a $145,000-a-year state trooper. Another nationwide search!
Check out the many happy Internet photos of Genduso and Polito, often with former state police Lt. Col. Dan Risteen. When Genduso was finally forced off the job, her dear friend Risteen, another FOK, soon, uh, resigned from the MSP with a $161,598 annual pension.
Then Risteen became “director of research and security” for Teamsters Local 25, whose thug boss Sean O’Brien was once suspended from the national organization for threatening dissidents in Rhode Island.
Then there’s Polito’s close ally on the Republican State Committee, Tom “Mount ‘em” Mountain.
Just last weekend, Pay to Play had her picture snapped with the disgraced former GOP vice chairman at the 9/11 commemoration in the city of Newton.
Even after all these other embarrassing photos with all her FOK’s, Pay to Play had no compunction about having her picture taken with Mount ‘em Mountain.
Mount ‘em was in the news a lot this summer. First, he was thundering about how a state committeewoman from western Mass. had to resign because she was “immoral.” What she’d done was express her opposition to gay marriage.
Mountain went holier than thou because he wanted to depose the conservative GOP chairman, Jim Lyons. But then somebody got ahold of what appear to be Mount ‘em’s own social media postings. Yikes.
Now the state committee has a pending resolution at its next meeting Sept. 29 censuring Mount ‘Em Mountain for his scandalous behavior and demanding his resignation. One sure bet: Karyn will be a no-show in her pal’s defense.
By the way, at the top of this column, I mentioned the great novel “The Friends of Eddie Coyle.”
Check out Polito’s financial reports. On July 26, she grabbed $1,000 from a guy at Wayne Roofing Systems in West Roxbury. His name is Eddie Coyle. In 2017, Eddie Coyle gave her another grand.
In other words, Karyn Polito is one of the Friends of Eddie Coyle, and Eddie Coyle is one of the Friends of Karyn Polito.
Truth really is stranger than fiction.
