West Bridgewater selectman accused of lying about residence won't face criminal charges

Police in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, say a former elected official in their town will not face criminal charges, according to an investigative report obtained by NBC10 Boston.

That conclusion comes after our "Small Town Secrets" story last July, which found the select board chair living with his wife at a home 20 miles away in Braintree.

When we confronted Anthony Kinahan about our findings, the selectman resigned from his position before our story even published.

State law requires that elected officials reside in the towns where they serve.

In the wake of our investigation, taxpayers called for a criminal probe into the voter fraud allegations, along with the stipend Kinahan received for his position on the West Bridgewater Select Board.

Seven months later, police in West Bridgewater have closed their investigation without interviewing anyone involved in the controversy, according to the report.

They also did not answer the question about where the former selectman lived when he ran for re-election in 2022, voted in town elections, or carried out his duties as an elected official.

"I do not feel this is a criminal matter," Lt. Timothy Nixon wrote in the report he compiled. "Although the news piece depicts Mr. Kinahan coming and going from an address in Braintree, it does not effectively establish that at the time in question."

We shared the police report with NBC10 Boston legal analyst and Massachusetts School of Law Dean Michael Coyne.

"I was disappointed," Coyne said. "I don't think it's as thorough of an investigation as we would expect. You know, we're not asking who stole the painting from the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum."

The police investigation never pinpointed where Kinahan was actually living. According to a property search conducted for the investigation, there were several addresses that came back to "Anthony Kinahan," while noting that the selectman's father has the same name and also lives in town.

As we previously reported, Kinahan sold his West Bridgewater home months before running for re-election in April 2022.

The residency issue surfaced during a candidate forum that year.

"I'm waiting for the right home for me, and when I find it, I'll buy it," Kinahan said at the meeting. "In the meantime, I'm still residing in West Bridgewater. That's all."

On the ballot and on nomination paperwork filed with the town, Kinahan listed his address at a property owned by his cousin.

We never saw the selectman at that address, but we spotted the homeowner and her family running errands and doing yardwork.

NBC10 Boston visited the home on July 12 and asked if Kinahan lives at the property.

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

The undercover video we gathered over the course of several weeks in May and June appeared to tell a different story. We observed Kinahan carrying breakfast, taking out the recycling, and 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 Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, raising more questions about how long the elected official had potentially lived outside town limits.

After declining our interview request, we attempted to confront Kinahan outside the Braintree home, and later the same day outside his office in Taunton.

Within hours of that exchange, Kinahan announced his resignation from the Board of Selectmen, citing "personal reasons."

Kinahan later sent a letter to the Board of Registrars, asking to be removed from the West Bridgewater registered voter list instead of attending a hearing to prove he still lived in town.

Retired Massachusetts state trooper and security analyst Todd McGhee wondered why the investigation was not referred to an outside agency to avoid a potential conflict of interest. Kinahan grew up in the community and in his elected position, would have voted on things like the police department budget.

"I think this is potentially an awkward investigation," McGhee said. "Outside agencies are sometimes leveraged in order to remove that awkwardness. Was everyone interviewed that should've been interviewed?"

According to the report, Kinahan "politely declined" to speak with police, as did his cousin.

There is nothing in the report to indicate anyone else was interviewed about the residency issue.

Over the past two weeks, West Bridgewater Police Chief Victory Flaherty has not returned our phone calls or responded to our follow-up questions via email.

Kinahan also did not respond to our request for comment about the police investigation.

A spokesperson for Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz told us that West Bridgewater police never contacted prosecutors to weigh in on the findings or whether enough probable cause existed to move forward criminally.

"I see a lot of 'maybes' and 'what-ifs,' but I don't see a definitive answer to the question that I think proper detective work should have been able to uncover," Coyne said. "And the fact is, it all ended up as another small town secret."

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