Former West Bridgewater elected official won't fight residency challenge

Following an NBC10 investigation that raised questions about whether he lived in the community, the former chair of the West Bridgewater Select Board is choosing not to fight to prove he should remain on the town’s registered voter list.

On Monday, the town clerk’s office received a handwritten letter from Anthony Kinahan, asking to be removed as a registered voter “effective immediately.”

The letter arrived hours before the town’s Board of Registrars was scheduled to meet and decide on a hearing date to summons Kinahan to appear before them and prove his residency. With his removal from the voter list, that hearing is no longer necessary.

Contributed

What happens next remains unclear. As we previously reported, some residents have called for a criminal probe.

“As a taxpayer and voter in this town, I’m requesting a full investigation into this voter fraud,” read a written complaint filed by Deb Idell after seeing our story.

Another resident, Cynthia McGuigan, filed a police report related to the annual stipend Kinahan received as a Select Board chair. McGuigan, who serves on the town’s finance committee, said on Tuesday she has not received any update from police.

We reached out to the police chief and several other command staff on Tuesday to ask if there is an active investigation, but have yet to receive a response. Police Chief Victor Flaherty previously told us the complaint was under review.

Kinahan has also not responded to a request for comment about why he decided not to fight the residency challenge.

Undercover video we gathered over the course of several weeks in May and June appeared to show Kinahan living at a home 20 miles away in Braintree. We observed Kinahan carrying breakfast, taking out the recycling, or sending off his wife as she left for work.

Property records show Kinahan’s wife bought the Braintree home in July 2022, just weeks before the couple got married in Bermuda.

According to a copy of the marriage certificate we obtained, Kinahan listed his address in Dorchester, raising more questions about how long the elected official had potentially lived outside town limits.

State law requires elected officials to reside in the communities where they serve.

On the April 2022 ballot, and on nomination paperwork filed with the town, Kinahan listed his address at a home owned by his cousin on Turnpike St in West Bridgewater.

We visited the cousin’s home last month and asked if Kinahan lived at the property.

“Yes,” she responded, before asking for a business card and declining to answer other questions.

However, last May, Kinahan changed his address to another nearby home on Turnpike Street that is owned by his parents, according to documents provided on Tuesday by the town clerk. 

Prior to publishing our investigation, Kinahan declined our on-camera interview, but reiterated that he still lived in West Bridgewater. He later dodged our questions at the Braintree home and outside his office in Taunton.

A few hours after our attempt to speak with him in person, Kinahan announced his resignation from the Board of Selectmen. His letter cited “personal reasons” for the decision and made no mention of the questions about his residency.

Ryan Kath can be reached at ryan.kath@nbcuni.com. You can follow him on Twitter or connect on Facebook.