The city’s first legal marijuana establishment, Northeast Alternatives, is suing Fall River and Mayor Paul Coogan for the return of over $4.6 million plus interest in host community impact fees.
The fees are part of Northeast Alternatives’ Host Community Agreement between the City and the business and meant to cover costs incurred by the municipality for having a licensed commercial cannabis operation. Those costs could be extra police for traffic management and are supposed to be well documented by the city.
The lawsuit argues the fees are unlawful because they do not reflect actual costs to the City because of Northeast Alternatives operations, located near the Tiverton border.
According to Massachusetts law covering cannabis, a city or town must document those costs as public records and cannot exceed 3 percent of the company’s gross sales.
The lawsuit alleges that after repeated requests for documentation regarding costs to the City during its annual license renewals, Northeast Alternatives never received proof of the alleged costs incurred between 2018 and into 2022.
History of host community agreements
Northeast Alternative founder Christopher Harkins first signed an agreement with the city in April 2018 under former mayor Jasiel Correia II, who was eventually prosecuted by the federal government for taking bribes from marijuana businesses looking to set up shop in Fall River after cannabis was legalized in Massachusetts and for stealing investment money for his app start-up, SnoOwl.
Sentenced to six years in federal prison, Correia spent a little over four years behind bars after he eventually reported to prison in April 2022. He was fully released from the Bureau of Prison’s custody recently on July 11, 2026, and is living back in Fall River.
While he was mayor, Correia engaged briefly as a consultant for Northeast Alternatives in 2018, after promising the state Ethics Commission the side gig would not include any city business in his capacity as the city’s top official.
He told the commission his role as consultant to Northeast Alternatives was to assist the company with “municipal strategies, marketing and relationship building.”
Just seven days after getting the go-ahead from the Ethics Commission to work for Northeast Alternatives, Correia signed a letter of non-opposition and the host agreement that allowed the business to open at its 999 Canning Boulevard location.
Four days after getting the letter and agreement, Harkins donated $20,000 to Correia’s legal defense fund the then-mayor set up after rumors were flying that he was under FBI investigation and before his two arrests by federal agents in October 2018 and again in September 2019 associated with the marijuana bribes.
After a month, Correia was let go from the consulting job.
The city did have to amend the first agreement with Northeast Alternatives when it was discovered that the city was illegally charging the marijuana business 4 percent of the company’s gross sales above the 3 percent cap.
Harkins was never accused by federal prosecutors of giving bribes to Correia in exchange for a letter of non-opposition, but he did testify at the federal trial for the prosecution.
In addition to the more than $4.6 million with interest, the lawsuit is demanding the City pay Northeast Alternatives legal fees.
