AN OLD SAYING "MANY TIMES THE COVERUP IS WORSE THAN THE CRIME"

It is pretty easy to tell the difference between transparency and a cover up, and this one has cover up written all over it.

A lot of things just aren't adding up with the Saundra Kee-Borges City car Accident, including her statement of apology.

One of the first things that raised red flags for me was the quickness that the HPD press release came out saying that Kee -Borges and the unauthorized operator of her city vehicle fiancée/boyfriend/significant other Terry Waller had  a green light and the accident was caused by the other driver. I e-mailed the HPD Public Information Officer, Lt. Brian Foley and asked how that determination was made. Was it from independent witnesses, maybe some video in the area or was it just Waller telling the officer he had a green light.Lt Foley was unsure and told me he would look into it

 The releases were quick to say that Waller and his fiancée/girlfriend/significant other Sandy Kee-Borges were the innocent victims at 2:17am as they were hit by an evading driver who ran a red light. Call me suspicious , but I just don't accept what a press release says as the truth.

The red flags were raised even more on Monday as I tried to get the incident reports regarding the arrest that Kee-Borges claimed as the reason she let Waller drive her car. I wanted to see the time lines and try to figure out where she was from the time of her sons arrest until the crash at 2:00am.

As I started pushing for the arrest report as well as the accident report, the barricades went up, mainly FOI reasons not to release the report. I called a staff attorney at FOI and got the other side. Their claims for exemption were not making sense.

I eventually received the arrest report for Garrett Borges, through alternative means, as well as the accident report and the attached supplemental reports from all officers involved, none through my FOI requests. I was told that the requests were being forwarded to Detective Wiebusch , since she was the FOI person at HPD.

When I spoke to the FOI Attorney, she offered to call Detective Wiebusch to clarify the matter. She called me back a short time later to say that Detective Wiebusch's voice mail said she was on vacation until October 14th. How convenient.

The time line and excuses are important to painting the full picture, but first, here is Saundra Kee-Borges statement she released earlier this morning.

STATEMENT FROM ACTING CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER SAUNDRA KEE BORGES

 

“Last Friday night while attending the NAACP dinner, I received a call from the Hartford Police Department regarding one of my children. I left immediately and drove to the Public Safety Complex on High Street in my city vehicle of which I have full commuter privileges.  An accident occurred as I was on my way home from the police station with my fiancé Terry Waller, a Deputy Fire Chief for the City of Hartford just after 2:00am. While driving through a green light, another vehicle struck us and then fled the scene. Terry and I were taken to the hospital, where he remained until late Saturday morning.  Thankfully we’re both OK and the police captured the individual responsible for the hit and run. 

I want to thank the Hartford Police and Fire Department, the ambulance crew for their quick action and I want to thank the staff at St. Francis for treating us with such care.  I also want to apologize to Mayor Segarra for any inconvenience or speculation this incident may have caused. Although Terry is a city employee, I should have driven myself. At that moment, I was deeply concerned for my child as any parent would be.”

 

Does anyone else find it interesting that the Mayor's office could release a statement on a Sunday night that he was cutting ribbons at 2 Hartford parks today, but not a word about his COO crashing her city car in a questionable accident?

 

As you can see, Kee-Borges also mentioned that green light again. The fact is that there apparently was no independent determination as to what happened, no video, not even other witnesses. The accident report says that Waller told the investigating officer he had the green light. Surprise, surprise. But apparently when a deputy Fire Chief says he has a green light, that is good enough to cite the other operator.

 

Now I will concede that the operator of vehicle #1 didn't help his credibility  when he ran from the scene, but does that increase Waller's credibility?

 

Sources have also confirmed that Kee-Borges received a phone call at the NAACP dinner sometime around 10:00PM. They said she appeared to be somewhat upset and her and Waller had some tense words before they left the dinner, supposedly to go attempt to bail out her son from the HPD lockup.

 

It appears they had to arrange for a bondsman since Garrett was not released until 5:00am Saturday morning, long  after the crash occurred. Sources have also confirmed that Kee-Borges and Waller had left the public Safety Complex before the midnight shift began arriving at 11:00PM. I have FOI'd the Police Department video to confirm this timeline as the front lobby area is recorded.

 

That then raises the question of where Kee-Borges and Waller were until the time of the crash at 2:17am the question. It potentially leaves over 3:00hours unaccounted for as to where the City Car was as well as where they spent the time and doing what?

 

Considering the crumpled up coupon from J's Crabshack that I found on the ground in the name of Saudra Borges, that might be a good spot to start.

 

Transparency means getting to the bottom of this matter , wherever it leads. We deserve no less and the credibility of the Segarra Administration, if there is any left , depends on it.

 

Where were they? Was alcohol involved? Why was the car still out long after any City business at the NAACP dinner had concluded. What was the blood alcohol content , if any, in Waller's blood ,which was most likely drawn at the hospital when he was treated. If they really want to clear the matter, I think Waller could voluntarily have that information released to HPD without the necessity of obtaining a search warrant for it.

 

It is hard to set a tone of accountability when those at the top are not held to the same standards as those they supervise.

 

In the meantime, any delay in releasing public documents stinks of a coverup, whether intentional or not, and HPD and Chief Rovella have done too good of a job establishing credibility  to get sucked into City Hall nonsense.

 

NOTE: regular readers of the blog are used to seeing documents and are used to reading the reports I refer to. Unfortunately, there is an effort to uncover my sources to keep the public's information from getting out. As documents and reports pass through the review process they are coded and signed  and it is somewhat easy to tell at what point I get the documents based on where they are in the process. So rather than risk  where in the process the documents came from, I have chosen not to post the actual reports until they are released through the regular FOI process.