Today's Hartford Courant had an editorial about "What's Wrong With Hartford". For those that didn't see the editorial or don't read the Courant, here it is in its entirety:
What's Wrong With Hartford Two Examples Public officials take advantage of their positions
Just because former Mayor Eddie Perez has been convicted on felony corruption charges and sentenced to three years in prison doesn't mean city government in Hartford has been completely disinfected.
An internal police investigation found in August that Officer Hector Robles knowingly falsified time cards and bilked the department out of more than $9,000 in overtime. A disciplinary hearing concluded last week, but Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts has yet to decide on a punishment.
Termination has been recommended. That's what he should get, since Mr. Robles has neither the pride nor conscience, apparently, to resign either as a police officer or from his other job of public trust, state representative from the 6th District.
Mr. Robles raises the "everybody does it" defense, claiming that 11 other officers are falsifying their overtime records too. Has he told the chief who they are?
This case should be referred to the state's attorney.
Also last week, city councilwoman Veronica Airey-Wilson was granted accelerated rehabilitation, a special form of probation that will allow her record to be expunged if successfully completed. She had a city contractor — the same one involved in the Perez corruption case — install a granite countertop in her home. She was accused of tampering with evidence to show that she had paid for the installation even though the contractor, Carlos Costa, testified that he did the work for free.
"My biggest regret is that I guess I'm so open and trusting of everyone and in my choice of selecting someone to do the work in my home. I didn't recognize the flaws," she told Judge Julia D. Dewey Thursday. She's got to be kidding. Didn't "recognize the flaws"?
Mr. Costa certainly recognized the flaws of mixing personal and city business. The contractor, whose $5.3 million contract with the city was plagued by delays and shoddy construction, testified that he installed her countertops for free, at her request, because "she was a councilwoman and she was in a position to help me."
Ms. Airey-Wilson's attorney said his client will continue to serve on the city council during her probationary period. She should resign to spare Hartford another embarrassment.
What are Hartford's children to think when a police officer and a council member — let alone a mayor — use their public positions to profit and then won't take ownership of what they did?
end of Courant editorial
If you would like to make your thoughts known on the Robles matter, Chief Roberts office can be reached at 860-757-4010. If you would like to make your feelings known on whether Veronica Airey-Wilson should resign from the Council, the Hartford Republican Town Committee meets tonight at City Hall or call Airey-Wilson's office at City Hall at 860-757-9575. As always, feel free to leave your thoughts and comments here.
The hearing is over, the report should be done and the election is fast approaching.
I have received numerous calls asking if Chief Roberts will make his decision before the November 2nd election that includes Hector Robles as the incumbent candidate for the 6th Legislative District.
The answer to that question is a pretty simple one.....how the heck would I know?
Common sense would say that Chief Roberts is not going to let politics play into his decision. With that being said though, the Chief is well aware of the criticism he received when the initial Internal Affairs Investigation report was released two days after the August primary. The report at that time was out of his hands and I know for a fact that both the Hartford Corporation Counsel's Office and the State's Attorney's Office were both involved in the delay of the report being released.
The timing of the release, 2 days after the primary, raised the suspicions of many that it was done for political reasons to protect Robles, but I feel comfortable saying that wasn't true.
With that being said though, hopefully it shouldn't happen twice. Whether it is the Chief's fault or not, it might be hard to convince City residents that the second delay until after an election is just bad timing.
This has dragged on since August 14th, the hearings were completed a week and a half ago, and from what I understand, the facts and the evidence have not had any real change.
Hopefully Chief Roberts, who is out of town this week at the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual meeting in Orlando, has made sure that the hearing officers report will be sitting in the center of his desk when he returns at the end of this week.
Political pressure should not play into this decision, but a large part of the confidence that the public has in Chief Roberts and his leadership will be challenged by any unnecessary or unjustified delays.
In the meantime, bring your pencils to the polls, three "write-in" candidates have qualified for the ballot to challenge Robles. Democrats Alyssa Peterson and Kathy Evans as well as Republican Mike Lupo will all be on the ballot in the 6th District.
At the risk of being accused of bashing Richard Blumenthal again, I think it is only fair to post these You-tube videos. Doesn't it seem somewhat hypocritical to now be denouncing Linda McMahon and the WWE when politicians, both Democrat's and Republican's, had no trouble using the WWE to further their campaigns in 2008.
In this age of video, it is interesting the video you can find on the internet. Whether it is a politician who "misspoke" about serving in Vietnam or other politicians using the "evil" WWE to further their campaigns, it is all there for public view.
PRESIDENT OBAMA ON WWE, SENATOR OBAMA AT THE TIME IN 2008
Have you ever laid your keys down and then a few minutes later can't recall exactly where you put them? Then add some stress to that, you have a doctor's appointment that it took months to schedule and you can't find that ring of keys to head to the appointment. You begin stressing and wonder why you can't remember everything exactly as it happens, your brain is supposed to be a perfect "video recorder" of your actions, right.
Now imagine that you are a police officer on a poorly lit, snowy street in an industrial area of Hartford in a high stress situation with a convicted felon intent on escaping. If that escape involves taking your life, he's going to do what he has to do, and the car he is in comes hurtling toward you. As a police officer you draw your gun and try to stop the deadly weapon, also known as the felon driving toward you at high speed, in an effort to protect yourself from possible death.
You do what you have to do, do what you were trained to do, you make the decision to use deadly force and you fire at the vehicle. In firing at the vehicle you strike the driver and he is wounded, but not killed. The end result though is that the convicted felon intent on escaping has been stopped and as you check yourself you are still intact, breathing, heart beating, so far so good.
Now the hard part begins. You couldn't remember where you put your car keys earlier but you are going to be expected to give a complete description as to what happened, second by second, inch by inch. And if you thought it was stressful trying to remember where you set your car keys down, then try having to be able to remember every detail in your decision to fight for your life and use potentially deadly force.
That begins the eight year plight of Hartford Police Officer Robert Murtha.
I'll post some of the documents here as they are available, but several big questions remain.
The first being is why does the City of Hartford continue to appeal this case? Is it a personal or political agenda being pushed by someone?
The only hearing that has seemed to be decided against Murtha was the Hartford Police Department's internal disciplinary hearing. That hearing is ripe with questions and would most likely raise the suspicions of any reasonable jury that may eventually hear the case. Both the Arbitration award and the Hartford Police Union's attorneys brief raise some real questions.
The hearing should have been conducted by an "impartial" Captain assigned by the Chief of Police. Newly hired Police Chief Patrick Harnett assigned Captain Joseph Buyak as the hearing officer. Coincidentally, Captain Buyak at the time of the Murtha incident was also the Commander of the Investigative division of HPD. Essentially that means that Buyak was responsible for the overall results of the Internal Investigation into the shooting.Then, Captain Buyak was also called upon to oversee the discipline hearing and decide on the actual legitimacy of the investigation and the same report that he was responsible for supervising.
That would seem pretty close to a police officer making an arrest and then also serving as the Judge for the trial. Why Chief Harnett didn't see this as a conflict of interest should be a very interesting question to be put before a Jury.
Eventually, due in part to Captain Buyak's hearing and the original investigation and acting on Chief Harnett's recommendations, Murtha was arrested on criminal charges related to the incident. After a criminal trial, Murtha was acquitted by a Jury and found not guilty of the criminal charges.
Murtha subsequently filed a lawsuit against the City of Hartford.This lawsuit was brought by Murtha to enforce Connecticut General Statute 53-39a, which provides economic recovery to any police officer who is acquitted after being prosecuted for criminal charges arising in the performance of police duties.
Before the end of the trial in Murtha's suit for damages, former Corporation Counsel John Rose recommended to the Hartford City Council settling Murtha's suit. In the memo, dated June 22, 2009 Rose urges the Council to settle with Murtha and he states "There is no question that Murtha will recover against the City. The only question is how much the jury/a court will award him.The damages claimed by Murtha are NOT covered by insurance." The Council disregarded Rose's advice and Judge Thomas Corradino rendered his decision on February 24, 2010 and agreed with Murtha's claim and awarded Murtha damages that could total $1,019,478.03.
Subsequent to that decision, the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration issued their decision in Murtha's Labor Board hearing. An Arbitration award ordered Murtha reinstated to his position and ordered that he "shall be made whole for all losses incurred including back pay and other benefits".
Although Rose had warned the Council that they would lose the original suit, which they did, the City is now also appealing that decision. That decision could potentially more than double the original award since the City chooses to gamble on the appeal. If the City should lose this next round, they are once again liable for all of Murtha's legal expenses as well as the costs incurred by the City defending the appeal.
In the meantime, the dollars are still adding up on the original award at the rate of approximately $1210.00 per week. That figure does not include any legal fees. Attorney Helen Apostolidis, a retired City of Hartford Senior Assistant Corporation Counsel who is now a partner in her own private law firm based in Middletown (Bird & Apostolidis), has been hired by the City to defend the case. The city is paying Attorney Apostolidis in addition to paying Assistant Corporation Counsel Nathalie Feola-Guerreri to be co-counsel in this matter.
There is much more to come on this, but the attached documents should provide some interesting reading to start with.
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.