HOLYOKE — Ward 2 City Councilor Wilmer “Will” Puello-Mota is set to be released from a Rhode Island jail as early as Wednesday if he posts $2,000 cash bail.
Puello, 26, has been incarcerated since May 11, when he was arrested for violating his bail in a case he is facing in Rhode Island for the alleged possession of child pornography. In a court hearing Wednesday, Puello admitted to having violated his bail — prosecutors allege he forged military documents to mislead them — and was sentenced to the maximum 90 days in jail, which he has already served, according to Rhode Island judiciary spokesperson Craig Berke.
However, because of the allegations that he misled prosecutors, Puello now also faces felony charges of obstructing the judicial system and forgery and counterfeiting. Bail was set at $20,000 for those charges, meaning that Puello can now be released from jail if he manages to post 10% of that amount in cash or the full amount in property.
Puello was remanded back to jail after Wednesday’s hearing, according to Berke. A Rhode Island Department of Corrections spokesperson said that Puello was still incarcerated as of Wednesday around 2:30 p.m.
Efforts to reach Puello and his lawyer, John Cicilline, were unsuccessful Wednesday afternoon.
Puello was originally charged in January 2021 with possession of child pornography after police in Rhode Island accused him of paying for nude photos of a 17-year-old girl in 2020, when he was 24. He pleaded not guilty to that charge. In court filings, police allege that Puello told them he had met the girl online, initially believing she was 22, and had not had any sexual contact with her. The police narrative, however, alleges that the girl told police Puello knew she was 17.
Puello was out on bail as his case made its way through the courts, but he was then rearrested in Westfield in May and extradited to Rhode Island after prosecutors accused him of forging his military supervisor’s signature on a fraudulent military memo.
Puello is a staff sergeant in the Air National Guard, stationed at Barnes Air National Guard Base. Prosecutors allege that as part of his efforts to resolve the child pornography charge, Puello sent them a phony memo on “Department of Air Force” letterhead with the forged signature of his superior officer.
Since his arrest, Puello has remained in jail. He has not resigned from the City Council. The council does not have a recall process to remove any of its members.
After the allegations against Puello became public, the Gazette reported that staffers in Holyoke’s city clerk’s office had previously raised suspicions about the possibility that signatures were forged on Puello’s nomination papers for his first, unsuccessful run for City Council in 2019.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.