Laliberte-Lebeau hires lawyers to take her harassment case. She's due in court in October.
FALL RIVER — A District Court judge on Tuesday postponed the arraignment of City Council President Pam Laliberte-Lebeau in a criminal case of alleged harassment and obstruction of justice involving a former lover and his wife.
Laliberte-Lebeau, who did not appear at the scheduled proceeding, had been expected to plead not guilty on Tuesday morning in Fall River District Court on two misdemeanor charges of criminal harassment, and annoying telephone calls/electronic communications, and two counts of felony witness intimidation/obstruction of an investigation.
Laliberte-Lebeau, 50, on Tuesday also submitted her resignation as City Council president due to her legal troubles. She will retain her position as a city councilor.
She has hired local defense attorneys Frank Camera and Kathryn Blythe Carlson. The attorneys on Monday filed the motion to continue the proceeding, requesting the extension until Oct. 13, and cited that they were newly hired and had court scheduling conflicts.
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Camera is also the defense attorney for indicted former Fall River police officer Michael Pessoa, whose trial for alleged excessive force and violating the civil rights of three men on different occasions while on duty begins Oct. 3.
The allegations against Laliberte-Lebeau
The Herald News has not identified the alleged victims, but first reported that Laliberte-Lebeau's problems with the law began earlier in August when Westport police executed a search warrant at her apartment building on New Boston Road to retrieve the councilor’s cellphone.
According to police reports, Westport police received a complaint from a couple that alleged the wife had started receiving telephone calls and text messages about an affair between her husband, who is a real estate agent, and Laliberte-Lebeau.
Westport police allegedly pinpointed calls with different cell phone numbers to Laliberte-Lebeau's personal cell phone, and discovered she had installed an app that hides her number behind fake or so-called “burner” telephone numbers.
Included in the Westport police report are a series of alleged text messages found on Laliberte-Lebeau's cell phone with another real estate colleague that includes suggestions of planting “evidence,” and that a text that reads “I didn’t say there wasn’t a chance for a couple of minor charges being slapped on us, I’m E-L-E-C-T-E-D.!”
The police report also indicates that Laliberte-Lebeau, who was initially uncooperative with Westport police when they attempted to execute the search warrant and denied being home, eventually agreed to speak with police.
She reportedly went to Westport police headquarters and admitted to investigators she downloaded the app, and stated she had called and texted the ex-lover's wife, indicating she was angered when she learned the husband was also seeing another real estate agent as well.
Alleged victim’s husband was a business associate of Laliberte-Lebeau
In the police report, the alleged victim’s husband explained to Westport investigators that he and Laliberte-Lebeau had recently started a business relationship.
He told police that Laliberte-Lebeau “would help him in [sic] partner locate properties that were either foreclosed, abandoned, liened on, and then they would purchase them. [The husband] added they would flip the homes and then give Ms. Laliberte-Lebeau the listing on the home or residence when it would go up for sale.”
In April, Laliberte-Lebeau was featured in a story in The Herald News about her and her partners’ initiative called the Little Pink Houses Community Fund.
For every house that Laliberte-Lebeau and her partners flipped, they put money into a fund to help people afford down-payments on a new home. The first recipients of the fund, announced in April, were a worker from the Department of Community Maintenance and his wife who received a $10,000 check to put toward a down-payment for a new home.
Jo C. Goode may be reached at jgoode@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism and subscribe to The Herald News today!
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Pam Laliberte-Lebeau arraignment continued; faces harassment charges
