Re-post
The Connecticut State Police Omerta Crumbling?
Arthur L. Spada, former Connecticut State Police Commissioner
CONNECTICUT NEWS
Witness Reveals `Secret' Meeting Says Session Involved Public Safety Chief, Father Of Slain Man
June 9, 2006 By TRACY GORDON FOX And ALAINE GRIFFIN, Courant Staff Writers
MERIDEN -- A former state police commissioner went behind the backs of detectives feverishly tracking leads in the 2003 mob-style killing of a Middletown businessman, holding a "secret meeting" with the victim's father and attorney, according to testimony in the larceny trial of former state police Maj. Greg Senick.
Timothy Barry, a former commander and colonel of the state police, made the accusations against his former boss, Public Safety Commissioner Arthur Spada, during testimony Wednesday in Senick's trial in Superior Court in Meriden. The trial has become a fish bowl of the dysfunctional state police hierarchy during Spada's tenure, which ended in 2004.
Through his pointed cross-examinations, Senick's attorney, James Wade, has tried to show that Senick's arrest was fueled by politics from outside and within the department. Under Wade's questioning, Barry, a prosecution witness, disclosed the meeting Spada and Senick held in 2003 concerning one of Middletown's most notorious unsolved homicides, the slaying of Joseph Mazzotta.
It was "a secret meeting that was completely undisclosed and undocumented and after that, Mr. Wade, I told your client if he ever did anything like that again I would run him right out of the state police," Barry said.
"And I told him, don't ever do that again. If that ever occurs where the commissioner is going to do something unethical as that, you have to tell me about that," said Barry, who now works in fraud management for a Hartford insurance company.
Senick, who is accused of charging thousands of dollars in bills to the state while living in state-owned property, had been Spada's chief of staff.
Reached at home Thursday, Spada, a former Superior Court judge, acknowledged meeting with Salvatore Mazzotta, the father of Joseph Mazzotta, who had been shot in the face and neck at point-blank range in Middletown. But he vehemently denied there was anything secretive or unethical about it and said that Barry was bitter and out to get him because he drummed Barry out of the department, after he learned Barry was trying to get his job.
"It's an outrage. It's the mad ranting of a disturbed and paranoid mind," Spada said of Barry, whom he had appointed colonel.
"It was the worst appointment I ever made, and I regret it."
Spada said he frequently met with citizens who wrote to him about cases or problems.
"Mr. Mazzotta is a citizen. He lost a son in a very gruesome killing," he said.
"I conducted hundreds of these sessions when I had a complaint."
Spada said the meeting was held in the library of his office and that state police attorney Dawn Hellier was there.
"It was on the calendar," he said.
Spada said Mazzotta had asked the state police to take over the investigation of his son's death from Middletown police. He said the major crime unit had already completed its investigation and had turned over any evidence to Middletown detectives.
But according to Barry and other sources, the state police Statewide Narcotics Task Force and Organized Crime Task Force were still involved when that meeting took place.
Friends found Mazzotta's body in the offices of the family's equipment-rental business on Boston Road in Middletown on April 14, 2003. Police never determined a motive for the killing.
Mazzotta, 40, was a member of one of Middletown's wealthiest families, prominent in local construction and real estate.
Investigators have examined the family's investments in the Schaghticoke Indian tribe in Kent and Joseph Mazzotta's involvement in Cocktails on the Green, the Cromwell bar in which Mazzotta had a silent interest. The bar was in financial trouble, and police sources said low-level transactions of narcotics and stolen goods took place there. Before his son was killed, Salvatore Mazzotta had hired bodyguards to keep order at the bar. He also paid tens of thousands of dollars to settle the bar's debts so it could be sold.
About a month before the slaying, a severed pig's head was left at the bar's front stoop.
In December 2003, Middletown investigators went to Springfield, Mass., looking for possible connections between Mazzotta's slaying and the Nov. 23, 2003, killing of Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno, a reputed mobster for the New York-based Genovese crime family.
Bruno attended Mazzotta's wake and funeral and is known to have associated with Salvatore Mazzotta, sources close to the investigation have said. Last December, Frankie Roche, a Massachusetts man with reputed mob ties, was charged with murder in Bruno's death.
Salvatore Mazzotta had been meeting regularly with Middletown police for updates, police sources said, but the meetings are now less frequent. Sources have said Mazzotta's involvement has been awkward at times, partially because in 1990, Salvatore Mazzotta was charged and later acquitted in a cocaine-trafficking case.
On Thursday, Mazzotta recalled meeting with state police after his son was killed, but he could not remember meeting with Spada. He said a stroke he had four months ago has affected his memory.
Mazzotta said his greatest frustration has been police officers' insistence that he knows more about this than he is saying.
"Instead of looking for who killed my son, they were looking at me," Mazzotta said about Middletown detectives.
"They go to Springfield, they follow me. I'd be a damn fool if I know who did it and don't tell."
Mazzotta, who had asked for state police help days after the slaying, said he lacked confidence Middletown police could find his son's killer and was disheartened when state police pulled out of the case just months after the slaying. He said no one has contacted him about the investigation in 2½ years.
"They left me hanging. I don't know nothing," Mazzotta said.
"I don't have faith in nobody no more. I lost a son."
Middletown Deputy Police Chief Lynn Baldoni declined to comment on the investigation Thursday.
Spada's name had come up at a March 4, 2004, meeting between state police investigators, Drug Enforcement Administration officials and officers from the Statewide Narcotics Task Force.
At that meeting, state police Capt. Peter Terenzi, then head of the narcotics task force, voiced concern about Spada's involvement in the Mazzotta case
In a report, Terenzi said that Spada had friends and associates in the area who "were also some of the people we were looking at as possible or potential targets."
Terenzi was later transferred and disciplined after allegations surfaced that he disparaged Spada's familiarity with Italians.
In his testimony, Barry said Senick was "obligated" to disclose the 2003 meeting with Mazzotta, which occurred "while an investigation is going out and dozens of officers are trying to solve the case."
"You know, Mr. Wade, as a criminal defense attorney the consequences of actions like that," Barry said, referring to how the meeting may have affected the case.
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[click here] for More of:
"Damn Bloggers!"
Connecticut Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers
Was she making this comment about me when addressing the Bar Association at [this meeting]?:
Excerpts:
"You, as a dedicated and committed group of attorneys, have been ardent and vocal supporters in the area of educating the public about the rule of law, and the bench is tremendously appreciative of these efforts. This principle is vital, and it is essential that the public understand precisely what is at stake when our constitutional obligation to apply the rule of law is under attack.
"When judges do the right thing under the law, however, we often make someone angry. And let me assure you, in the no-holds-barred era of the Internet soapbox, the feedback -- often anonymous -- can be brutal. As you know, we as judges cannot, under our Code of Judicial Ethics, comment about our cases. That is why it is so essential that the bar step up and speak up to make sure that the public understands the need for an independent judiciary that will apply the rule of law as opposed to making the popular or less controversial decision."
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[click here] for more of:
What did Rell know, and when didn't she know it?
Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell (left) [my post on Moody's conduct], former Governor John G. Rowland (middle)
Rowland was up to shenanigan after shenanigan, taking bribe after bribe while LT. Governor M. Jodi Rell supposedly knew nothing, yeah right!
[click here] for the history of public corruption in Connecticut
M. LISA MOODY, the Governor's Chief of Staff, testifies before the Government Administration and Elections committee about her role in a controversial fundraiser to benefit the governor. (SHANA SURECK / May 16, 2006)
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Thursday, September 04, 2008
The Connecticut Sheriff Scandal Cover-up
Click on page for larger viewIf you look for discrepancies and know a little about the inside workings of a patronage system of government and of courts, you'll understand the below and clicking on and examining each of the below documents.
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Does Official Connecticut cover up its own public corruption by falsely arresting, imprisoning, and using conspiring doctors to medicate whistle blowers so they can be locked up in mental institutions? Well, the case of Anne Kristine Blake might prove that is the the unofficial policy. [click here for more]
A former Ms. Green told me 7-7-2007 that a "connected" family had there 24o lb, tall, and out of control violent daughter in a group home risking the lives and safety of staff and clients of the DMR. The client should have been in a more secure facility after assaulting other clients and staff. Ms. Green probably has a new last name because she married another DMR high ranking employee after they went to a physical holds and restraining class and teamed up with each other in the class to put holds on each other, and they seem to have liked it ...
So, according to former Ms. Green and her husband exposing abuses, taxpayer defrauding, retaliation, nepotism, the state of fear in the DMR (Connecticut Department of Mental Retardation), the falsifying of reports, and the blanket disregard for rules, procedure, and laws could mean being fired, losing one's pension, and even ending up under arrest and in prison. Ms. Green told me that is how all 3 branches and all official Connecticut departments operate.
Part CT Judicial Branch Scandal, Former Gaming Lobbyist and Connecticut Judicial Marshal Jim Parks speaks out
Part 2
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Excerpt:
Former House Speaker James Amann was hired Friday as a $120,000-per-year senior adviser to his successor, Speaker Christopher Donovan.
In his new position, Amann will help Donovan on both administrative issues and important pieces of legislation. He will also be organizing regional meetings with both business groups and advocates on a variety of legislative topics.
"His skills at negotiation and consensus building will be particularly welcome at a time when we in state government need a cooperative approach to solving the daunting challenges before us," Donovan said. [found here]
Amann and Parks know each other from a young age ...
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[click here] for:
DCF and Connecticut's Official Whore House
...
Kristine D. Ragaglia
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[click here] for:
Power, Intimidation, and the Threat of Death or Serious Injury
is a hallmark of any Mafia-like organization.
Michael Bochicchio, a retired Major in the Connecticut State Police
Someone that can easily obtain large amounts of money and then just waste it, such as losing $176,000 gambling in just 6 months, begs many questions.
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[click here] for:
The Connecticut State Trooper Gene Pool?
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email your video in.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Nepotism and Corruption in the Connecticut Judicial Branch?
You can be jailed for just driving through Connecticut if judges and lawyers think they can get away with robbing you blind [more]Comments to an online Newspaper:
Caruso should start with his own cousin, Edna Press, who was given the position of official court reporter in Stamford. The position required that the person be a practicing court reporter. Ms. Press was not. Before being employed only as a court monitor, not reporter, she was a day care worker, check her tax return records. Ms. Press had not done court reporting in years. Ms. Press advised one of her employees in Stamford to move to Bridgeport in order to be able to bill for mileage by being outside of the district. The employee fraudulently stated that she lived in Bridgeport for three months, before actually moving to Bridgeport, and was paid for that mileage. Instead of being fired, Ms. Press has now been elevated to Supervisor of Transcript Services, a top management position, with pay increase, and probably a state car, and yet is still "stationed" in Stamford for her convenience, and not in Hartford, although does have her new title.
Mr. Caruso's cousin's daughter, K Mulvihill, just recently acquired the position as "caseflow coordinator trainee." Ms. Press and Ms. Mulvihill are very close, personal friends with Mr. D'Alesio, the executive director for Judicial, number three in command in the State. The position of caseflow coordinator in Danbury was posted at 58k a year, yet the posting for "case flow coordinator trainee," in New Haven, the job K. Mulvihill just recently acquired, was posted for 38k with an asterisk, stating if you had a law degree, the pay was 68k. Let's all guess what her starting salary will be. Nice wedding present, Joe. Those in positions of authority in judicial continually alter the job classifications and qualifications as they deem suitable for their needs in supplying these upper management positions to their friends and family. It is an abuse of authority, it is corrupt, it is discriminatory, illegal, and abusive, in addition to being a gross waste of funds of Connecticut tax payers.
Hamden, CT
Gov. Rell, Chief Justice, Senators...Stop the corruption in the State Judicial Department. Those in positions of authority have been milking the judicial branch for years now, giving top management positions to their friends and family, all for personal gain...they are bleeding the taxpayers and the State dry...we don't need more deputy directors, program managers, executive supervisors...we need the workers in the courtrooms...CLEAN HOUSE NOW--DO THE RIGHT THING!
As a taxpayer I am outraged. Where is the justice? From the sound of it, certainly not in the Judicial Branch!
Derby, CT
There is so much nepotism in the Judicial Branch it is sickening. If your relative is a Judge, you are a shoe in for the top paying jobs. There are no tests administered for jobs, just send in your application w/resume and a phone call from your relative and you got the job!! High paying jobs are given to people without any college education. What message does this send to young people? No one even checks for high school diplomas!! Wake up Governor and clean house in Judicial.
I think if our leaders continue to fail to deal with these serious issues, then perhaps in November we should remember that when we vote.
Taxes are supposed to help pay for the things we need in our government, not to give a job to someone because they are related to or friends with someone.
I'm very happy this bill finally was passed. But when you take a step back and think about it, it's pretty insane that any public official ever who was removed from office for taking bribes would ever still be paid a pension afterwards.
The allegations of nepotism in our state judiciary made my other commenters are disturbing as well. Does this bill address those sorts of ethics violations? I really wish this article actually stated what the bill that was passed actually does in detail. Is it a comprehensive ethics bill, or just a narrow scope bill to deny pensions to convicted bribe-takers?
It is absolutely disgraceful that judicial workers who do their job and do it well with professionalism and dedication and have the qualifications are unable to attain a promotion not because they don't deserve it but only because someone much less qualified has "the juice" with the powers that be who will ultimately rubberstamp their promotion. Knowledge is no longer a precursor. The old saying It's not what you know but who you know is alive and thriving in the Judicial Branch within the State of Connecticut. To you, Mr. Joseph D'Alesio, and those of you in management enjoying the spoils of your deceipt, your corrupt behavior, and your disregard for those of us who do not matter in your desire to fatten the wallets of your families and friends, when will you have a conscience? I believe you collectively never will until your actions are scrutinized by an outside agency and you're held accountable. Only then will people like myself and the many others who man the wheels of justice day in and day out will truly believe in justice.
I am very troubled by the allegations made regarding Edna Press being a daycare worker prior to her position in upper-level management with the State of Connecticut.
THE PEOPLE OF CONNECTICUT MUST DEMAND AN INVESTIGATION INTO THIS MATTER!!!
If these allegations are proven to be true, then
it is indeed time to clean house starting with Mr. Joe D'Alessio himself. Can we get the Connecticut Post to follow this growing story???
Signed, a disgusted taxpayer
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[click here] for the Connecticut Post piece
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Connecticut Judicial Branch Whistleblowers tell of felonies being committed within the branch:
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[click here] for my recent email to Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell and CT Atty General Richard Blumenthal
[click here] for my videos on liveleak.com
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Should judges and lawyers have a license to steal? [more]
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[click here] for:
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
"Oops, I crapped my pants"
-official ConnecticutFeds Overlooked Hartford Cop’s Checkered Past
by James Brewer | April 3, 2007 8:40 AM
Posted to Local Politics
File photo
The Deputy United States Attorney that brought down Boston FBI Agents and local cops for illegal activities with federal informants seems to have turned a blind eye to the questionable appointment of suspended Hartford Police Officer Robert Lawlor (pictured) to the Federal Violent Crimes Impact Team (“VCIT”) in 2005.
Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney Kevin O’Connor and Deputy U.S. Attorney John Durham remain mum on the topic of Lawlor’s involvement in a Federal Task Force operating in Hartford that led to the death of 18-year-old Jashon Bryant and shooting of Brandon Henry by Lawlor. Lawlor killed Bryant and seriously wounded Henry while on duty as a deputized United States Marshal working on the VCIT.
VCIT was a joint operation, federally funded, that utilized Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (“ATF”) agents and Hartford Police officers to get guns off the streets.
Who is John Durham?
Durham, a well renowned federal prosecutor was hand picked in 1998 by Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate allegations that, for decades, FBI agents and police officers had been compromised by the mob. Durham soon discovered that FBI Special Agent John Connelly had assisted the mob in at least three murders. Durham successfully prosecuted these cases and earned praise from his colleagues for his integrity and perfectionism. [more]* * * *
http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/
I'm sure there are many more we don't know about as well...but as far as I'm concerned it is "Mission Accomplished" as we now have a Democrat and a smart one at that for our next President.
Do any of you remember a senior FBI agent called John P O'Neill who tried very hard to forewarn President Bush and his other FBI colleagues that Osama bin Laden would attempt to strike the Twin Towers again. Mr O'Neill was also aware that certain individuals were being taught how to fly commercial aeroplanes. No one would listen, no one helped him to put together all the facts - in fact no one was interested in helping him save lives.If this man had been taken seriously then perhaps we would not have lost the 3,000 lives on the 11th September 2001. This is fact I am sorry to say, please go to the web and bring up John P O'Neill and you will be horrified to read all the information contained therein.John O'Neill left the FBI in total frustration and got a new job as senior Safety Officer at guess where, the Twin Towers.He died trying to save lives. I believe if the press or other organisations investigated this scandal you would perhaps realise that President Bush and others did not want to hear about the threat to the Twin Towers - it was not part of their game plan.It is up to you Americans to find out why he would not listen. Perhaps it partly explains why President Bush sat for 7 minutes after being told about the hit on the first tower without taking any action.That is not normal behaviour. So if this is not included in this article then it should be and it should be at the top of the list.For the sake of those who died do something about it.
What's most disturbing about this article is the number of scandalous endeavors by this fascist regime that aren't even mentioned.
Some of those are just Bush's stupid people doing stupid things . Some of them are indictable offenses and should be followed up on. I am fairly certain that the Obama administration will not pursue these sorts of things looking forward and all that, but I am not to sure that it sends the right message. I think every politician found to violate the law should be taken down. It is time that we cast the fear of the law into the hearts of our public servants
It is simply amazing the breadth and the scope of malfeasance within this administration.
I can't believe what we are doing to ourselves as a country. These types of antics filter down - from the White House to the outhouse - to Wall Street, "Main Street" and personal encounters on side streets. We have been parasitical for 30 years going on 40. Barack Obama may be different but you have to ask: "Are the people he's circling himself with any different?" Let's hope his influence reaches beyond what has become standard operating procedure.
Thanks for mentioning the $12 billion cash that Bremer "misplaced." I've never forgotten that, and in fact it's near the top of my litany. That's almost 2% of the $700 billion bailout, and it seems largely forgotten.
You think this is bad, remember William Jefferson Clinton. I only wish Bush could have been impeached just as his predecessor was.
I do remember William Jefferson Clinton. And I'm remembering a lot of other things, such as how I still had a 401(k) when he left office instead of the 101(k) I've got now, or how we actually had an economy, or how there was a balanced budget, or how we weren't bogged down in a pointless war in the Middle East, or how we didn't have Christian fanatics running government policy, or how the US had respect, or we had more hope of an environmental policy, or.... No, no, when I think that the Bush years were bad, I think of the Clinton years, and then I think of how bad the Bush years ~really~ were. Clinton got blown. Bush screwed everyone. I'll take the former, thanks a bunch. I really don't care if the current administration gets to experience the enhanced interrogation techniques they say are so harmless just to get them to talk about what they've really been doing. (Will that be on Pay-per-View, maybe?)
Regarding the FBI and the Anthrax investigation:
The real scandal is yet to come as the FBI has nothing but a HUNCH that Bruce was the mastermind.
It took Stephen Hatfill years, a great deal of money and a fighting spirit to clear himself. Bruce is not here to defend himself, having been drained of money and hounded into giving up on life.
The FBI had a lot of pressure to solve this before the end of the Bush administration. I imagine high fives went around FBI headquarters when Bruce committed suicide. So easy to blame a dead man.
I think that here is where Bush is a genious. Clinton had one scandal and people still can't get over it 10 years later. But, if you have 100 people just can't keep up. At this point we have just become numb to scandals and corruption and Bush is going to escape any punishment.
Also, I think Bush counted on the fact that the Democrats wouldn't have the spine to impeach two presidents in a row.
Regarding the Canadian citizen being whisked away to Syria...
I watched a film a few months back, similar situation. In the film, a U.S. citizen was mistaken to have done transactions with a terrorist and was taken away to Egypt and tortured. His wife kept at it. Eventually, he was let go by an American observing the interrogations.
My wife asked me if stuff like this really happened. I said probably not.
I feel sick to my stomach now.
So often, when it comes to politics, the American public is accused of having amnesia but after the last eight years I'm not certain if these things are truly forgotten or if they represent a soft focused nightmare that most people would like to pretend never happened. We've just lived through a period that casts a pall on the very definition of public service. Let's try to get beyond the shield of cynicism and have some hope for a brighter future.
Bigwurzz: I suspect that's exactly the strategy of this administration. Either that, or the slightly more "innocent" story that they've simply lost touch with what is ethical and what isn't ethical.
It's strange how those who claim to be saved, can still act as though they have no moral compass at all. But this isn't an indictment of religion, so much as it's an indictment of those with power, and what happens when those with power aren't held accountable.
The latest, Bush senior wants the other bush Jeb, to run for President before he "moves on".
The thought alone burns a hole in my skull.
This administration - all of them - should be publically marched out of the White House in handcuffs.
The Borgen Project has informative statistics on addressing global poverty.
$30 billion ends world hunger
$550 billion is the US Defense budget
This organization has the ability, resources, and policy-makers to suppress the threat of global poverty by enacting legislation here in the US, which is tied to the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals. Please support organizations such as The Borgen Project so that we may rid the world of poverty.
@FredafromScotland
Yes, I do recall. I also recall that not only did Condoleeza Rice have a report in her hand warning of possible hijacked planes to be used as weapons, but that the military had actually conducted a drill based on that very scenario. In any event, how was it possible that all the billions of dollars spent on defense such as the NORAD system utterly failed. Does anyone remember the rash of hijackings in the 1960's? Well, absolutely nothing useful was done for nearly 40 years. Finally, Bush the Tush brags about keeping America safe AFTER September 11, 2001 (except for rescue workers at ground zero who were lied to about the risks). Admiral Husband E. Kimmel kept Pearl Harbor safe AFTER December 7, 1941. I guess the actual attacks don't count.
And these are just the ones we know about...
@astegga
you think that's bad
from http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-playing-field/200812/greed-and-ga mes
"Well, the New York Yankees signed three players last week for a cost of $423,000,000. That's 423 plus million for those of you afraid to count zeroes.
Which, as it turns out, is the about same amount of money Germany has pledged to rebuild Afghanistan.
423.5 is also the cost of all the anti-malarial nets currently needed to stop the spread of that disease worldwide, with about a 100 million left over for medicine for those whose nets didn't arrive in time.
Or, if you go by Doctors Without Borders calculations, the salary of those three players is also enough to feed two good meals to 242 million of the 350 million folks who go hungry each day.
And, if environmental issues seem more pressing, well that's enough to help the Save-an-Acre organization purchase and protect 847,000 acres of rainforest, which would go a long way to slowing global warming and stopping a crisis unprecedented in human history."