Letter: More context needed for story on candidate St. Gelais and his legal dispute

The two major party candidates for the 8th Bristol District Representative seat have caused a “public safety announcement” accusing Jesse St. Gelais, one of the independent candidates in the election, of fraud and effective theft of an Acushnet person’s home. The alleged supporting story is a written decision by a Superior Court judge that contains the basis for these accusations. Jesse St. Gelais is the target of this last-minute effort by his political opposition to malign his candidacy and his personal professional reputation in this community. 

Here is the rest of the story: 

The Superior Court trial that resulted in the trial judge’s written opinion was a jury trial with eight Bristol County jurors sitting that rendered a unanimous verdict in Mr. St. Gelais’ favor. The verdict was that Jesse St. Gelais had not misrepresented or committed fraud in his dealings with the homeowner. Because Massachusetts law technically provided the trial judge an opportunity to reject one part of the jury verdict (an advisory opinion favorable to Mr. St. Gelais by the jury), the trial judge took the very unusual step of substituting her opinion about Mr. St. Gelais contrary to the 100% positive answers provided by the jury in its verdict. 

The “public safety announcement” and the article written by the New Bedford Light do not include the history of how the trial judge’s judgment was reached. It was in essence the rejection by a single person, the trial judge, that Mr. St. Gelais had acted deceptively and unfairly. The eight-person jury had come to the opposite conclusion after four days of trial in Taunton Superior Court. Certainly, this information should have been disclosed to the media by the Massachusetts Republicans and opposing candidate as part of the last-minute “news” communicated to The New Bedford Light. 

If the media and/or the Republicans want an accurate and complete context of the events that led to the lawsuit, a transcript of the four-day trial is available and can be obtained from Mr. St. Gelais’ trial attorney, Philip N. Beauregard. The facts developed at trial show quite plainly that Mr. St. Gelais was not in the money lending business or commercial real estate rental business, and that he had used his personal credit card to pay off the multiple years of tax debt owed by the property owner to the Town of Acushnet, and the fact that Mr. St. Gelais acted very quickly in advancing his personal funds, at his own risk, to assist a person who was a neighborhood resident so that she could avoid the imminent loss of her home without compensation from the vulture law firm and lender that was ready to finally foreclose and obtain the property approximately two weeks ahead of the imminent final court judgment.

The voting public should also be aware that the property owner was at all times advised by her personal lawyer as well as the lawyer who monitored the closing of the transaction (a deed and not a loan), and that the property owner had been a student at Bristol Community College and was astute in regular daily business issues such as home ownership. 

The electorate is certainly deserving of the full information, particularly with a personal attack on the independent candidate that appears to have been made purposefully on the eve of the final election. 

Jesse St. Gelais is a candidate for state representative in the 8th Bristol District. Philip N. Beauregard is an attorney representing St. Gelais.