That doesn't really accurately describe the will of the people. 66% of voters voted to remove him from office.

The same election idiotically included him as an option on the 2nd question of who who the next mayor should be and there were like 5 candidates. He got 35% of that vote, a few hundred more than the next closest answer and was removed/re-elected on the same ballot.

At the end of the day, it's true to say that 2 out of every 3 voters who participated in the recall did not want him staying in office. It's dishonest to frame it as Fall River embracing a crook.

All you can really infer from that election is that a) there should be some overhaul to a process that allows a recall election to have the incumbent be on a replacement question and b) ranked-choice voting almost certainly would have prevented this.

Even then, this was before the 2nd set of charges about bribery, which actually might matter to people. The SnoOwl stuff was a more tenuous case and didnt really breach the public trust.