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Wednesday, April 8, 2009

HARTFORD'S WEAVER HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FIGHTING THE RIGHT KIND OF FIGHT

This past Saturday on the Hartford Public Access program that myself, J.Stan McCauley, Bishop John Selders and Angel Morales hosted, we interviewed students and parents from Weaver High School. As part of the program, Stan McCauley produced and edited a great piece narrated by Hartford resident June Lyons graphically portraying the deplorable conditions that exist at Weaver, a school that has seen no substantial renovations since it was built in 1974. Graphic pictures portrayed the awful conditions including water damage, missing cinder blocks in walls, shower rooms in total disrepair, hardware on emergency exits missing or broken and students detailed the presence of rats and roaches in classrooms and the cafeteria. Many residents also called in to express their dismay at the condition of the school.

Although there was apparently no mention of major repairs at a PTO meeting held last week, after the program aired Saturday night, on Tuesday the Superintendent of Schools announced that $3 million dollars had been "found" for repairs at Weaver. Makes me wonder how you suddenly "find" $3 million dollars when you are laying teachers and support staff off. Was $3 million in a shoebox on a shelf in Kelvin Roldan's office? Regardless, at least the students at Weaver who brought the issue up should be commended for stepping forward and making a difference.

1 Hartford airs on Hartford Public Access Channel 5 on Saturday's at 10:00PM and can also be viewed on the internet at http://1hartford.com and click on the "1hartford program" box. That's the numeral one "1" in the internet address

AS THEY SAY, A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS



The picture above of Hartford firefighter John Thomas was taken after his recent arrest for DUI after he ran a pedestrian down in the street and evaded the accident and left the victim lying in the street. Thomas is one of the three Hartford firefighters mentioned in the preceeding post who were arrested last month.

Thomas was fired from the Hartford Fire Department Wednesday.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

WHO MIGHT SHOW UP WHEN YOU CALL THE HARTFORD FIRE DEPARTMENT ?


When the 911 lines ring at the Hartford Emergency Dispatch Center and help is requested from the Hartford Fire Department, most people don't think about who they might be letting into their homes when the firetruck arrives, but maybe they should. We know it won't be former Deputy Chief Dan Nolan, he was terminated for requiring recruits to participate in charity events. We know it won't be experienced firefighters with years of experience from cities such as New London, they were passed over for recruits with questionable criminal backgrounds. What we do know is that it could be a firefighter suffering from drug or alcohol addiction, a firefighter that has admitted to stealing electricity and been arrested for larceny, or even as bad as a firefighter caught online discussing incest and graphic sexual details with what he thought was 13 year old girl and having over 140 child porn images stored on his home computer.

Since the City of Hartford isn't known for its transparency and addressing issues that don't fall in line with the Mayor's spin machine, the incidents below have been revealed through sources and a lot of digging. Only one television station in the area seems to be willing to do the leg work and expose these troubling cases to the public. The story of Hartford Firefighter John Thomas was exposed by WFSB reporter Len Besthoff last Thursday. John Thomas's arrest report is below. Thomas is accused on running down a 58 year old pedestrian on the night of March 28, 2009 at 8:15 in the evening as he drove drunk on Main Street. Noemi Castillo, the pedestrian, is recovering from non-life threatening injuries. Thomas fled the scene, and due to witness accounts, he was promptly located and arrested by the Hartford Police Department. Apparently to avoid detection by his employer, he listed his occupation as "unemployed" on his arrest paperwork. After refusing to take a breathalyzer test and after he finished threatening to kill the police officers, Thomas was eventually released on a $5,000 cash bond.

READ JOHN THOMAS'S ARREST REPORT BELOW:
John Thomas Arrest reports

Although the thought that a Hartford firefighter could run an elderly pedestrian down in the street and leave her for dead is very troubling, the next arrest of a Hartford firefighter is even more troubling. Dion Hightower is a Hartford firefighter who was assigned to the Chief John Stewart Fire House located at 25 Blue Hills Avenue. On the morning of August 7, 2007 Hightower received a call that the Connecticut State Police were at his home with a search warrant. Hightower left work and somewhere around 7:00am he returned home and was promptly read his Miranda rights by a detective from the Connecticut State Police. The information Hightower volunteered after receiving his rights is extremely troubling. Apparently, according to the police reports below, Hightower was caught in an online chatroom having a conversation with a 13 year old female. The sexually explicit conversation was captured by monitoring software used by Hightower's internet service provider and the information was provided to law enforcement as required under Federal law. The Connecticut State Police and their Computer Crimes and Electronics Evidence Laboratory (CCEEL) began investigating and the computer user was traced back to Hightower. In the ensuing investigation, over 140 images of suspected child pornography were recovered from Hightower's computers. The transcript of Hightower's on-line conversations are detailed below as he chatted with a 13 year old girl and asked her about whether she liked incest and stated that he had sex with his 14 year old daughter and encouraged the girl to have oral sex with her father. He was eventually arrested March 4, 2009.

DION HIGHTOWER ARREST AFFADAVIT IS BELOW********* THIS AFFADAVIT CONTAINS SEXUALLY EXPLICIT DETAILS THAT MAY BE OFFENSIVE. IF YOU ARE UNDER AGE 18 OR FIND THIS OFFENSIVE. PLEASE DO NOT READ*************************

Dion Hightower Arrest

The next arrest of a Hartford Firefighter involves the case of Gregory Simon, who was arrested by the Hartford Police Department on March 12, 2009 after an investigation by HPD. Although Simon's case isn't as offensive to most as was Hightower's, it still seems to raise concern's as to the caliber of firefighter's enter people's homes and businesses. Simon was arrsted for Utility theft and Larceny, third degree after he was found to be stealing electricity for a building he owned at 153 Adams Street in Hartford. After complaints were received from other tenants that their electric bills had increased substantially, an investigation was begun. During the course of the investigation, it was determined that Simon had rewired the electric panels to enable him to steal electricity from the buildings tenants. Simon readily admitted to the investigationg officer that he had committed the theft and tried to justify his actions. He stated that he was going through difficult divorce, and needed "just a little bit of electricity" and considered his larceny to not "be a big deal". Police estimated the value of the theft at $3422.61.

GREGORY SIMON'S ARREST AFFADAVIT IS BELOW
GREGORY SIMON ARREST

These arrest reports make me wonder though. If I had to dial 911 and open my door to the Hartford Fire Department, who would I rather have respond, the likes of Hightower, Thomas and Simon or the likes of former Deputy Chief Dan Nolan? I think the choice is pretty simple, but unfortunately we know Nolan won't be rushing for the door of a burning building anytime soon, Hightower, Simon and Thomas very well could be.

In closing, I don't want this to be an attack on the dedicated men and women of the Hartford Fire Department, but forcing people like Nolan out so that we can overlook the criminal records and questionable backgrounds of applicants is wrong. More will be upcoming as we expose more of the background investigations and criminal histories of recent hires by HFD.

Friday, April 3, 2009

ETHICS, CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND THE CHARTER REVISION COMMISSION

Jeff Cohen from the Hartford Courant had a story online today at http://courant.com/cityline regarding the large amount of city dollars being spent by Corporation Counsel John Rose on outside lawyers hired by the City of Hartford attempting to defend and appealing Freedom of Information Decisions that have been decided against the City. The requests by Cohen and the Courant involve documents that will definitely embarrass the Dishonorable Mayor Eddie A. Perez and his "transparent" regime, but none the less have been ruled as public documents by the FOI Commission and their orders to Rose to release the documents. Rose's strategy appears to be to delay and stall any release through endless appeals, continuances and hearings. All the while the clock is ticking on the meter for the private attorneys and contributing to the City's deficit, all while hoping to shield Perez from embarrassment by the very documents his actions and his administration have created.

One of the more troubling revelations in the article though is that a major player in the appeals and eventually beneficiary of the billing, is an attorney at the firm of Pepe and Hazard. Attorney Richard Wareing seems to have billed the majority of the approximately $125,000 charged to Rose's office and the City of Hartford. The only person close to Wareing is Attorney Fenton Guest, who sources tell me is a personal friend of John Rose.

The reason I find Wareing's billing troublesome is that Wareing also sits as the Chairperson of the City of Hartford's Charter Revision Commission. One of the major points facing the commission, aside from the makeup of the City Council, is the issue of the Corporation Counsel's Office and its responsibility and accountability under the Charter. To me, this would seem to be a major conflict of interest on the part of any attorney receiving tens of thousands of dollars from the same Corporation Counsel's Office that you are potentially sitting in judgement of the very activities and operations of an office that would most likely affect that same attorneys future income and ability to receive work from the Corporation Counsel.

I would ask for an opinion from the City's Ethics Commission, but we all know that Perez appoints them also. Something seems broken here.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

DPW DIRECTOR CLARENCE CORBIN FIRED BY PEREZ

For anyone who follows my postings, I have not been a huge fan of some of Clarence Corbin's management decisions. None the less, I think he was doing a somewhat decent job running the Public Works Department in spite of layoffs and budget cuts and, from all appearances and indications, staying clear of involvement in the corrupt activities of our dishonorable Mayor Eddie A. Perez.

All of that ended Thursday when Corbin was fired by Perez for not following the city's procurement procedures. I am fairly certain there were other reasons that will eventually come out. Although a press release from Perez's office mentioned an "acting Deputy Director of Public Works" who was also placed on adminstrative suspension, the person was not named. Sources have advised me that the "acting Deputy Director of Public Works" was John McGrane. Sources also stated that McGrane accompanied the "lobbyist" to Washington D.C. along with another DPW employee, Marilyn Cruz-Aponte. According to sources, McGrane will serve a 30 day suspension for his actions and afterwards will return as the City Engineer, rather than as a Deputy Director.

Questions still arise as to how much involvement Corbin actually had in this lobbyist plan, and from what my sources tell me , McGrane apparently was the signer on change orders and payment approvals for the "lobbyist". It will probably take some work, but I will try to get these documents from the City and post them here.

I think to many though, the big question is how does Perez keep his job, while Corbin is dismissed. Although Corbin may have violated procurement procedures, Perez has been arrested and charged with fleeceing the city in a scheme to have work done on his home at the City's expense. In the arrest warrant affidavit it alleges that Perez planned to have the cost for some of the repairs hidden in billing to the City through an account for repairs to the Church Street Garage. At least no claims have been made that Corbin attempted to benefit personally from his actions, unlike Perez who's corrupt scheme did benefit him personally in at least $40,000 dollars worth of repairs to his home.

A question for our dishonorable Mayor, Eddie how can you look anyone in the eyes and do what you do? And you might want to be careful about the Ethics violations that you want examined. To quote Councilperson Veronica Airey-Wilson, peole who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

There are more underlying reasons for Corbin's termination other than what was presented in the press release from the information I have received. One of these allegations involves a meeting about stimulus money for the Pope Commons streetscape project and Corbin potentially not "playing ball" with Perez. More on that as we work to verify the facts.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

JUST THE FACTS PLEASE CHIEF TEALE

After many comments, news reports and conversations, the Dan Nolan termination picture is starting to become clearer, but the motivation and reasons for his firing are still very unclear.

Rather than try to figure out the entire picture, I hope the attached documents will make the situation easier to understand, and you make your own decisions.

On March 18, 2008, Lee Erdmann, Chief Operating Officer for the City of Hartford sent a hand written memo to Human Resources Director Santiago Malave and Hartford Fire Chief Charles Teale, the subject of which was "re: Fire Complaint" and they were requested by Erdmann to "please jointly investigate attached complaint and report results to me" also noted on the memo in handwriting that appears to be other than Erdmann's it states "possible charges- lying, abuse of power, excessive mileage, creating artificial ___________". The second handwriting has not been identified at this point. Attached to Erdmann's note is a typed document that details "a complaint from wife of Fire Applicant-Did not want to release her name". These documents are attached below.
Nolan Erdmann Memo

Subsequent to Erdmann's March 18, 2008 memo, a letter was drafted by Vincent Fusco, President of the Hartford Firefighters Union, local 760 of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) on April 7, 2008. Fusco's letter to Assistant Chief Michael Parker of the Hartford Fire Department reports that "a serious allegation" has been made against Chief Nolan. Fusco doesn't mention who made the complaint, how he received it or if he attempted to verify any of the information. He does state though that "these are serious allegations that must be looked into and investigated immediately"

Fusco's letter can be viewed below:
Nolan Union Complaint

Apparently after the Union President, Vincent Fusco requested the investigation into the "serious allegations" against Nolan, on May 7, 2008 he did a 180 degree turn and sent a letter to Human Resources Director Santiago Malave expressing his concern that Nolan "is being disadvantaged monetarily by being denied the opportunity to perform overtime and his continued status on paid leave continues to potentially adversely affect his reputation". That letter he copied to Dan Nolan, unlike the first one accusing Nolan of "serious allegations".

Nolan Fusco Letter 2
Some might question the motives of Fusco in reporting the vague allegations directly to Chief Parker without speaking to Nolan first, none the less, an "Internal Investigation" was begun by Assistant Chief Parker. After Erdmann's memo of 3/18/08 and Fusco's complaint letter of 4/7/08, a "preliminary" investigation was completed. On April 18, 2008, Chief Teale wrote to Santiago Malave, Director of Human Resources, asking to meet with Malave for "review and consultation to determine what must be accomplished regarding this matter". Teale's choice of words "what must be accomplished" seems somewhat unusal, and raises the question as to what the initial goal of the "investigation was. Although the initial "preliminary report" is four pages long, it seems to be very short on specific charges, but speaks about "the 3 anonymous alleged allegations". The report continues to layout the "anonymous alleged allegations, yet does not provide any solid facts or statements from individuals willing to state on the record wrongdoing on Nolan's part. The first "anonymous alleged allegation was that Chief Nolan "is giving out questions to the oral interview before the applicants meet with Chief Teale" in return for a donation to Chief Nolan's Charities. Nolan admitted to Chief Parker to speaking to approximately 10 applicants. The questions reported to be "leaked" are detailed in page 2 of Erdmann's memo above. The questions appear to be very generic in nature, and I would hope that any applicant could answer the questions and not need to be prepped beforehand. Also, since it appears that Teale did not circulate the questions specifically being asked for the interviews, it would be supposition on anyones part as to the questions, other than relying on past history of the type of general questions asked over the years. The final line of "anonymous alleged allegation" one was that Deputy Chief Nolan is involved in many charities ; Cystic Fibrosis, Leukemia, Miami Project, Cherish the Children...

Nolan should be fired just for taking this much interest in charities, how dare he exhibit such behavior.

The second "anonymous alleged allegation" was that Chief Nolan violated the Hartford Fire Departments Vehicle usage policy. This "anonymous alleged allegation" apparently developed through an inquiry brought forth by Assistant Chief of Operations Milner. Milner claims that in February of 2008 he looked at the mileage in Nolan's city vehicle and while doing that he saw a "connected GPS unit" in the vehicle and he "assumed belonged to the Dept" As Milner was "poking around the unit I pulled up the history and noticed travels to the State of Rhode Island and LaGuadia Airport in New York. Milner further states that after discussing the mileage on the vehicle compared to others assigned to HFD personnel that "the mileage difference alarmed me". Milner was so alarmed that he waited until July 10, 2008 to put the "facts" he claimed in writing.

Milner's memo is below, dated 7/10/08

Nolan Milner Memo

The third "anonymous alleged allegation" in the report was that Nolan "solicited the recruits to donate to a charity that he is involved in" in exchange for a reduction in the recruits "towers". "Towers" are a form of punishment, similar to military recruits or police recruits performing sit-ups, push-ups or extra laps around a running track. Towers require that recruits run a certain number of times up and down the flights of stairs in the training "tower" at the fire academy. This exercise is very similar for the recruits as to what they would face in normal fire situation, carrying equipment or victims up and down in a highrise building, less the smoke and fire. In most cases the "towers" were assigned to the entire recruit class. In Nolan's "Laudermill Hearing", a legal title for the hearing held to result in Nolan's termination, the following exchange took place between Nolan and Teale:

Teale: "There is no standard related to how fast a person should run during fire recruit training. Why did you give towers as punishment for those who you thought ran too slow?
Nolan: "As I said, teamwork, motivation, there are weak links in the chain. In order for that chainto be effective, all the links must be present and pull together simultaneously. To me, a lot of people were not giving effort. It was walking time instead of running time and it impacted the whole class"

What was Nolan thinking? Teamwork, motivation, giving your full effort? How could any of that possibly relate to firefighters in a burning building needing to count on the person behind you for your life?

Pages 3 and 4 of the report essentially quote almost sixty "anonymous" statements making accusations without any names or written statements attached. Affidavits were taken from recruits attending the Hartford Fire Academy at the time in question, although the time line on the affidavits is also questionable because they were taken by Ivan Ramos of the Corporation Counsels Office in late September, almost six months after Teale claims the preliminary investigation was completed. Since no other reports were provided through my FOI request asking for "all reports", there are two possible scenarios. One is that the City was attempting to cover their tracks after Nolan refused John Rose's offer,through the Hartford Firefighters Union and Fusco, to go away quietly and they wouldn't touch his banked sick and vacation time or another report exists and the city is not releasing it. That would be a violation of the Freedom of Information Act since the City claims it released all the documents to me, and we know the City and Mr. Rose wouldn't do that.

The affidavits solicited from the recruits all appear to be almost identical, and apparently not in the recruits own words. They almost appear as "form" affidavits that they were all asked to sign, rather than pay for copies of all the affidavits from the City, I randomly picked a couple to have copied. They are attached below, you can make your own decision as to their validity. Surprisingly though, nowhere in any of the affidavits that I read was it ever mentioned that ANY recruit felt threatened by Nolan's requests to participate in charity events or assist in charity fundraising. Not one statement was made that ANY recruit felt as though adverse action would be taken if they did not participate, that they might be terminated, punished or in any way harmed by Nolan if they said no to his requests. In fact on recruit went so far as to on his own solicit gift certificates from a couple of Hartford restaurants as raffle prizes and one recruit who chose not to donate money, donated a gift certificate of his own for "Salsa" lesson instructions that he would provide.

Nolan Recruit Affidavit Sample

The entire "preliminary investigation" and Teale's memo to Santiago Malave is below

Nolan Teale Parker Investigation

On April 21, 2008, Deputy Chief Nolan was placed on "administrative leave" by Chief Teale. That letter is attached below:
Nolan Admin Leave Letter

More to come as I continue to try and follow the paper trail leading to Nolan's termination. Also, I will provide more information and try to connect the dots as relatives try to protect relatives forced out of the Fire Academy, only to be re-hired after Nolan's removal. The issue of the pregnant recruit and her HFD connections and how she was protected,and another recruit that shares the same name with a high ranking HFD official snared in a scandal of his own and accused of perjury and how she survived the academy after Nolan threatened to remove her.Read what a Superior Court Judge had to say about this HFD official on the record. More interesting history will be spelled out here as I attempt to get to the real reason behind this termination. If you have more that you think is important, please free to e-mail me.