Two important meetings will be taking place tonight and they both could prove to be very interesting.
The first meeting at 6PM is being held by the 6th District Democratic Town Committee. The meeting has been called to discuss the fate of 6th District State Representative Hector Robles. The meeting will be held at the home of Jan Appellof at 687 Broadview Terrace. THIS MEETING IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Robles is caught up in a "double-dipping" scandal at the Hartford Police Department where he is being accused of stealing almost $10,000 through fraudulent time cards. According to the Internal Affairs report Robles admitted to knowing that his actions constituted larceny, he was "double-dipping" and provided false information for his time records.
The Office of the Chief States Attorney is reported to be in the process of reviewing the IAD report and an Inspector has been assigned to potentially prepare criminal charges.
The second meeting will be a Public Hearing held at Hartford City Hall in the Council Chambers at 7:00PM. That will be for the public to comment on proposed ordinances. One of the ordinances has caused a lot of discussion and comments here regarding Councilman Cotto's proposal to limit the actions of the Hartford Police when it comes to immigration and intelligence gathering. The ordinance was posted here previously under "Is it time to disarm the Hartford Police?".
It appears the recount numbers are complete for the 4th District Democratic primary. Due to the closeness of the vote last Tuesday a recount was required and that was done today.
Kelvin Roldan apparently retained his seat by a five vote margin over his challenger Angel Morales.
Below is the actual narrative from the investigator assigned to the Hector Robles case.Due to the size of the report I had to scan it in 5 sections and it is lower quality scan than I had hoped.
Word from sources moments ago is that Hector Robles will be tendering his resignation from both the 6th District Town Committee and his seat as a State Representative.
Sources are also confirming that Hartford County States Attorney Gail Hardy earlier today referred the HPD/Robles IAD report to Chief States Attorney Kevin Kane for criminal prosecution.
More as I get it.
6:30PM UPDATE
Although at 1:00PM today Hector Robles had promised to deliver his resignation from the Democratic Town Committee and the State Legislature to 6th District spokeperson Jan Appellof, as of 6:30PM he has not arrived. Maybe 2nd thoughts? Who knows.
8:30PM UPDATE
Apparently now Robles is claiming he never offered to resign, never mentioned a letter of resignation and has no plans to step aside. Eerily similar to the Perez, saga, isn't it?
Although no one can be blamed for Hector Robles's behavior except Hector himself, how could this situation occur unchecked for so long?
Is anyone else amazed that in this day of technology and "blackberry this" and "i-pad that" that the Hartford Police Department is still using handwritten index cards to account for payroll time? And what about tracking and payroll software? Were there no red flags when the payroll was input that he was billing for the same, duplicate hours?
Is it really conceivable that Officer Robles is the only rocket scientist that figured out how to beat the system by double dipping? Out of a force of almost 460 officers could Robles be the lone fox feeding in the "PJ" henhouse?
How could an Officer that was assigned to the South Meadows as the community service officer be missing in action on all those occasions he was alleged to be double dipping? Did anyone ever notice he was making no traffic stops , no arrests, no case numbers being drawn, no productivity of any sort?
Where was the supervision? Where was his Sergeant who should be checking on him throughout the day? Where was his Lieutenant who at the very least should know what his activity was for his area for the week?
And just for the sake of Officer safety, why wasn't the dispatch center aware who is working and who is not? Routinely only patrol units sign "on the line" at the beginning of their shifts. Shouldn't every officer, detective, supervisor, Lieutenant Captain right up through the Chief be accounted for when they are working? Who tracks that all officers on the street are safe and return at the end of the shift?
It amazes me that no single person, whether a dispatcher or the Headquarters Commander could answer specifically at any given time who is available and accounted for. That just seems like a huge safety issue. Not to mention shouldn't it be known what resources are available at any given time?
Whatever happened to that modern technology we were supposed to be implementing called "GPS"? Would that have not shown that Robles's assigned cruiser was stationery for hours at a time at a construction site when it should have been patrolling the Southend of Hartford?
And with the number of Assistant Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs assigned to know what is going on in their areas of the City, were they all asking "Hector who?"
Heads need to roll on this one and it shouldn't just be Hector's head. He is responsible for his actions, but a lot of others need to be held accountable for theirs.
Fortunately a new supervisor assigned to the area noticed something wrong with Robles's productivity and started asking questions that others didn't. Luckily HPD has a Chief that has taken his responsibility and accountability to the community seriously and immediately launched an Internal investigation. And more importantly, Chief Roberts has built an Internal Affairs Division that handles investigations promptly and efficiently and has greatly reduced the backlog of investigations that he inherited as Chief.
A year to complete the IAD may seem like a long time to complete the investigation, but I think a 300 page report speaks for itself as to the extent of the investigation and its thoroughness.
It is getting late, but maybe tomorrow I'll try to address the timing of the reports release as my sources have explained it to me. It had nothing to do with politics.
If you have questions as to how this happened , feel free to post them and I'll try to get the answers
That might just be the next logical step if Hartford City Councilman Luis Cotto has his way.
Cotto has introduced a proposed ordinance that will drastically limit the efforts of the Hartford Police Department in obtaining information and intelligence gathering.The ordinance is below for you to view.
Since when can the Hartford City Council supercede the powers given to law enforcement by State and Federal law? Do we have any confidence in our Police Department and our Police Chief to do the right thing? Unless I'm confused, Federal law trumps State law, State law trumps municipal ordinances and resolutions.
As an example, one of the dictates being placed upon our police officers by the ordinance is "Reasonable suspicion that an offense has been committed may justify a cursory pat down of outer clothing for weapons but shall not justify a search, seizure or collection or retention of intelligence information".
Are you kidding me? A police officer can have a "reasonable suspicion that an offense has been committed" and it ends there? No questions asked, no id shown, no further search, just a simple pat down and now be on your way courtesy of Councilman Cotto. In any other jurisdiction, apparently besides Hartford, "reasonable suspicion that an offense has been committed" is known as probable cause.
Is Councilman Cotto attempting the rewrite just about every court decision that defines probable cause and a law enforcements right to proceed once that basic and necessary element has been established?
Why don't we just handcuff the police officers now and get it over with. The "collection or retention of intelligence information" after stopping someone is known as an "FI Card".The "FI Card" stands for Field Interview and is filled out by an officer after a contact with an individual on the street.
A police source familiar with the procedure stated that the FI cards are invaluable and that an alert officer filling out the card often leads to identifying suspects involved in crime trends. The source even stated that on at least one occasion a homicide suspect was identified through an FI card and someone being able to connect the dots to the suspects activities.
Maybe under Cotto's proposal we can do away with "intelligence gathering" and instead issue all Hartford Police officers their own crystal ball. It would probably do about as much good when it comes to Public Safety as this ordinance will.
I'm already prepared for those that will throw out the term racist and racism and claim that I have no idea what racial profiling feels like and the rest of the garbage that accompanies nonsense legislation like this. Illegal immigration is the elephant in the room that no one wants to speak about. Notice I didn't say "immigration", I specifically said "illegal immigration". If you don't follow the process and you are here illegally, you are a criminal, no matter what the reason. Someone robbing a bank because they need money and haven't eaten in days and are on the streets is still a criminal, no matter what the circumstances.
For hundreds of years people have been heading to the shores of what became the United States. There is a process, a legal and systematic process, for those wishing to enter our country and become citizens. My relatives did it, legally, and just about everyone reading this has done it legally or their relatives and ancestors did it legally. Some were forcibly brought to this country, but none the less, they hold the title of US citizen.
What's wrong with following and enforcing the process? I am reluctant to connect violent crime to illegal immigrants, we do well enough with violent crime committed by US citizens. I think most "illegal immigrants" actually come here for the same reason my ancestors did, and for the same reasons those following the process to become legal citizens arrive here. Quite simply, for a better life and to live in a great country like the US.
There is a process to enter this country legally and if Cotto or others don't agree with the procedure, then work to change that. Tying the hands of law enforcement only endangers those that are here legally and encourages more illegal immigration to sanctuary cities like Hartford.
Concilman Cotto might need to be reminded of the oath of office he took when he became a councilperson a major part of which he swore to "uphold the Constitution of the United States". Where does undermining State and Federal law enforcement efforts to enforce laws on the books play into "upholding the Constitution"?
This proposal is pure nonsense and is nothing short of pandering to a specific audience. I would hope that any law enforcement agent that is not allowed to do their job when necessary as required by law as result of this ordinance, if passed, will remember another law also on the books. It is called "Obstruction of Justice" or the lesser charge of "Interfering with a Police Officer", which is exactly what this proposed ordinance is all about.
It would be interesting to see what our new Corporation Counsel and Mayor thinks of the legality of this proposal.
Please turn out Monday night for the Council Hearing on this wonderful proposed legislation.
THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ON THIS BLOG ARE STRICTLY THAT, MY OPINIONS.After getting fed up with the lack of openness in Hartford City Hall, I decided to begin a program on Hartford Public Access Television called "WE THE PEOPLE". Through tips received we have been able to expose numerous issues that the Perez Administration would prefer to keep quiet.
Any information received is kept in strict confidence, feel free to e-mail me at krbrookman@earthlink.net or call me at 860-883-2297 with any information.