Abraham Kasparian Jr., a onetime Hampden County commissioner who served 14 years in prison after being found guilty of attempting to murder his wife in 2002, is seeking a return to county office, albeit in a different county.
The Cape Cod Times is reporting that Kasparian, now 66 and a driver for an auto parts company, has thrown his hat into the ring for the three-member Barnstable County Commission. Two of the three seats are on the ballot this fall, and Kasparian is one of four announced candidates, including incumbent Ronald R. Beaty. The other incumbent, Mary Pat Flynn, is not seeking reelection.
According to the Times, Kasparian is running as an “Independent Unifying Thinking” candidate. He decided to run to be an alternative to what he described as bickering Republicans and Democrats, and to show residents what the commission can do for them.
“A lot of people don’t know a lot about county government,” he told the Times. “If it can’t help the constituency, then maybe it needs to be abolished.”
Now living in Yarmouth Port, Kasparian served on the former Hampden County Commission from 1997-98. The county government was disbanded in 1998 and the commissioned decommissioned.
While on the commission, Kasparian made a pitch to the New England Patriots to relocate to Agawam. The football team opted to remain in Foxborough.
In 2002, he was arrested for attacking his estranged wife with a butcher knife in an Agawam pizza shop. He was convicted of armed assault with attempt to murder and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and sentenced to serve 12-15 years in state prison.
While in prison, Kasparian served as his own attorney in a 2014 lawsuit against onetime county commissioner Richard Thomas. The suit charged Thomas with leaking Kasparian’s sealed criminal record to the local press to discredit him prior to the 1996 election. Kasparian was awarded $311,000 in damages when the court ruled in his favor.
News accounts of the conclusion of the civil trial described one courtroom exchange where one of the opposing attorneys accused Kasparian of being “crazy as a loon.” Kasparian responded, “Yeah, $300,000 crazy.”
In the interview with the Cape Cod Times, Kasparian declined to discuss his conviction or his sentence, saying it was 20 years ago and people should judge him on who he is today.
“When people have paid their debt, they should be able to move ahead. It’s about who you are and your character moving forward,” he told the paper. “God has played a big role in my life, and religion has helped me get through the missteps in my life.”
As the Times pointed out, if Kasparian is elected, he will not be the first convicted felon ever elected to the Barnstable County Commission. Beaty served 14 months in federal prison in the early 1990s after he was convicted of threatening the life of President George H.W. Bush and other elected officials.
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