Birds of a Feather: How the Corrupt Everett Leader Herald Publisher and Boston Globe Reporter Conspired to Destroy Mayor DeMaria

  In the midst of the ongoing defamation lawsuit filed by Mayor Carlo DeMaria against the Everett Leader Heraldnewspaper and its owner, Matthew Philbin, along with Andrew Philbin, Sr., and corrupt publisher/reporter Joshua Resnek and City Clerk Sergio Cornelio, new information has come to light of the abhorrent relationship between Resnek and Boston Globe reporter Andrea Estes where journalistic integrity and basic honesty was tossed aside in order to destroy the mayor and his family.

  Resnek, who has had a professional relationship with Estes for years and would attempt to use her as a “confidential source” during his depositions with the mayor’s attorneys, had been communicating through emails and texts, which filled hundreds of pages of evidence from 2021 leading up to the election. The multiple communications proved that Resnek had been pushing Estes and the Boston Globe editors to follow-up on many of his fabricated stories ranging from the mayor’s longevity pay, false accusations of racism, sexual harassment and criminal activity, to the mayor’s real estate deal of 43 Corey St. with controversial Everett City Clerk Sergio Cornelio. It would be proven in sworn testimony by Resnek and Philbin that the two dismissed researching the legitimacy of the mayor’s role in an honest partnership with Cornelio; only publishing Resnek’s fabrications and lies in order to hurt the mayor’s reelection chances in both the 2021 primary and general election.

  In Oct. 2021, Resnek, writing about the mayor’s longevity pay, which at the time was approved by the City Council, falsely claimed his stories had gained the interest of the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office. Resnek told Estes that Cornelio’s lawyer would go on record with her about the longevity pay, but Estes replied that her editors were more interested in the Corey Street real estate deal where Resnek, again, had made false accusations and made up quotes in his stories of a shakedown for $96,000 by the mayor.

  In typical Resnek fashion, his scheme fell apart as Estes balked on the longevity pay story, texting Estes that there is a “nuance” that only Cornelio knows that slipped by the City Council that is “apparently illegal” and that Cornelio’s lawyer would share with her what “went on in the meeting with the US Attorney and the FBI.”

  The desperate muckraker, once again, attempted to have his lies published in the Boston Globe as the general election neared, telling Estes in an Oct. 29, 2021, text exchange that a story from her would be a “seminal moment.” “The story of the mayor taking $96,000 from him [Cornelio] caused quite a negative wave for the mayor.”

  When Estes read the lawsuit filed against Resnek and Philbin by the mayor, she asked Resnek if the charges and countercharges would make any difference in the election, and if it was true where the suit claims the mayor never spoke to him. No reply was given by text, but Estes texted to Resnek, “I just don’t [sic] to publish something that is untrue.”

 In early Oct. 2021, the truth began to catch up with Resnek following the filing of the mayor’s defamation lawsuit. Estes, in a text message to Resnek, advised him to complain to the editor of the Boston Herald, one of many news outlets that reported on the defamation lawsuit story. “You should complain to the editor. Rule 101. Call the subject of your story,” texted Estes, adding that the story was also picked up by Statehouse News Service. “You gonna’ call him?”

  Resnek replied that he was going to stay silent, but Estes told Resnek not to, as “silence suggests that you’re okay with the story.”

  Estes told the corrupt reporter that his comments could be used if other reporters pick up the story – “maybe have a lawyer call.” Talk about prophetic.

  By the end of the month, Estes would suffer a severe case of buyer’s remorse, realizing she bought into a story that was untrue, riddled with fabrications along with an allegation of criminal conduct by Resnek after he admitted to having no factual basis regarding the mayor and the Corey Street real estate deal following a Superior Court judge’s ruling that the deal was legitimate, according to an email by the mayor’s attorney, Jeffrey Robbins, to Boston Globeeditor Scott Allen.

  Estes was named as a confidential source by Resnek following the filing of the lawsuit where he’s named as a defendant. Also named as purported sources, according to the first supplemental answer provided by Resnek, were Sergio Cornelio, Margaret Cornelio, Michael Marchese, Joseph Marchese, Maria Bussell, Greg Antonelli, Matthew Philbin, a defendant in the lawsuit, John Hanlon, Wayne Matewsky, Gerly Adrien, John Mattuchio, Frederick Foresteire and John Egan.