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Thursday, June 26, 2014

HARTFORD CITY COUNCIL...WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ROSES

All of the attention to the Rock Cats deal is drawing attention to the real problems at City Hall. Apparently the media hasn't figured out that Mayor Segarra placed $450.000 into a special "non-specific" account in MUNIS. MUNIS is the City's accounting and operations software program. . The money is  in the "secret " account that has been used to pay a couple hundred thousand dollars so far for consultants , lawyers and  other "incidentals" related to the Rock Cats deal.

Although Segarra had to sell off City assets to balance his budget, he was able to find almost half a million in Capital Improvement Project (CIP) money to stash away to work to start the crazy deal. This probably isn't even legal since reallocation of CIP money typically would require a City Council resolution to re-allocate the Bond funds.

Where is our City Council  as far as addressing this violation? They are too busy holding press conferences and back pedaling now to worry about playing by the rules.

But my reason for this posting is a rather scary document I received that should have the Council scrambling to find every penny they can to avoid a huge disaster on the horizon.

The Council Has repeatedly cut money from the Hartford Police Department budget, especially for Police hiring. This year Governor Malloy and the legislature found and gave a couple million dollars to give to Segarra to once again bail him out. I am not sure they will fall for that again after $60 million was just handed to a group of real estate billionaires from a City that claims to be broke.

The money from the State that allowed the Council to re institute a Police Academy class of 20 or 30 officers is definitely a good start.  Thank you Governor Malloy, shame on you Hartford City Council.

It is a good start.Unfortunately police hiring is not just a matter of placing an ad in the paper. It is almost a two year process from testing to backgrounds to hiring to academy training to FTO (street) training and evaluation. And even after that, most officers will admit that they really weren't comfortable on their own until maybe four or five years into their careers. And the statistics support that. The learning curve for problems in those first years is high. For everything from cruiser accidents, bad shootings  bad arrests they are all high in the first few years and then drastically  begin to dip around year seven.

The chart below, which I am sure is available to any Council person if they cared, shows that disaster on the horizon I mentioned earlier.  Even though the Council will be replacing up to thirty officers, those numbers somehow seem to get cut when we really get around to it , and then typically 5 to 10 usually don't make the cut in the end. We may actually get 20 new officers if they fully fund the class.

 The chart shows the 94 officers that can retire before that next class would be ready for use on the streets. Now when a Council addresses budget issues for a City that is broke and talks layoffs and tax increases  and then within weeks are ready to give away $60 million they don't have, I am comfortable in saying they either can't add 2 plus 2 to get to 4 or they don't understand economics.

Here is a quick tutorial for Council President Wooden. if you have 94 Police officers that can retire and you have 20 Police Officers that complete the Police Academy how many Police Officers does that leave you?  Don't bother taking off your shoes to use your toes to count,.It is a net loss potentially of 74 Officers. A "net Loss" is not a good thing Councilman. Kind of like when you are broke and selling the parking garages on the monopoly board  and have no cash to pay the $200.00 to pass go.

I only posted those potential retirees that could retire over the next 2 years before a new Academy class would graduate. There are a total of 94 Officers. The first column are the officers, second column is their rank, third is their date of hire and the fourth is the year they could retire.

As with the baseball Stadium, the numbers just don't add up

THE HPD "CRASH CHANNEL, LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE

This posting is not the beginning of the latest police novel or a promo for a new television show. It may be a sad chapter of the latest HPD history to play out as an internal police investigation takes shape.

It will be a lengthy posting so, keep reading.

In the mid to late nineties a unit was established in the LAPD  to combat crime in one of the worst precincts in the City, the Rampart Division. It was called the "CRASH Unit". It evolved into the Los Angeles' Police Departments  worst corruption and frame-up scandal. News reports have revealed a widespread pattern of unjustified arrests, beatings, drug dealing, witness intimidation, illegal shootings, planting of evidence, frame-ups and perjury at the CRASH unit of the Rampart Division of the LAPD.

CRASH is the acronym for the "Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums", an anti-gang program. It was police officers essentially going to any length, legal or not, to make arrests and get gangs off the street. Numerous LAPD officers were actually arrested and sent to prison after it was revealed they planted drugs and set people up for arrest...or worse.

You might be asking yourself what his has to do with HPD? I am not insinuating that any extreme actions like that have occurred in Hartford. Sometime around 2006 or 2007 a group of Hartford Police Officers were able to convince the radio technicians that handled the City's trunked radio system to establish and set up a special talk group that only certain officers could access and talk on, Very few supervisors had access to the channel and it was not monitored in the Dispatch Center. High level administrators were aware of the channel, but apparently did nothing at the time to shut it down.

The channel was called the CRASH Channel by the officer's who had it set up, apparently named after the LAPD Crash Unit  who had a history of operating outside the normal boundaries  and supervision.When the Hartford Officers who had access to the channel wanted to operate "under the radar" they would instruct others with the channel "to go crash". That meant to switch their portable radios over to the crash channel and they could communicate without supervisors or others knowing what they were doing.

On the evening of December 1, 2007, shortly before 7:00PM  a vehicle pursuit  was started by HPD officers in Hartford's southend. the chase quickly got up to high speeds and LT. Brian Foley who was a southend zone Lieutenant at the time, (Now Deputy Chief Foley) immediately ordered the chase to be broken off and for the HPD Officers to stop pursuing the vehicle. According to sources familiar with the chase ,Foley believed the officers involved obeyed his order and the pursuit had ended.

Again, according to sources the order to " go crash" went out over the radio and unbeknownst to Foley and anyone else except the officers involved and using the "CRASH Channel" the pursuit continued at high speeds south into Wethersfield on Ridge Road where an HPD unit attempted to ram the vehicle being pursued but the vehicle did not stop. All of this is in direct violation of the HPD pursuit policy. Again sources that were part of this pursuit  eventually verified these facts through an Internal Investigation.

I have requested that report through the Freedom of Information Act and will post it here as soon as I receive it. The lead vehicle in the pursuit was operated apparently by HPD Officer, now Sergeant Felix Ortiz and apparently Ortiz was also the operator of the cruiser that rammed the vehicle they were ordered by Foley not to pursue while on Ridge Road in Wethersfield.

The vehicle and the chase continued at high speeds south into Wethersfield over Cedar Mountain through Newington Center and eventually up Fenn Road headed toward West Hartford. Again, this pursuit was taking place on the "Crash Channel" and no Hartford supervisor except for Ortiz and those officers following him were aware of what was taking place. Once on Fenn Road the vehicle being chased apparently lost control near West Hill Road. The vehicle apparently crashed into a house and a passenger in the vehicle, a teenaged female, was killed.  The Crash Channel  immediately came to life with orders to "get out of here before anyone realizes who we are" Ortiz and the others did just that. Apparently no first aid was rendered, no one called for Emergency services, they just returned to Hartford. 

At the time I was told that none of this was recorded, but that was untrue and the IAD file reportedly contains all the details as well as audio recordings of the incident. Ortiz was apparently disciplined  after this incident by former Chief Daryl Roberts but there is no indication why criminal charges were not pursued for the death that resulted from the  illegal chase.

You might be asking yourself now why this matters seven years later.

It appears that this past Monday morning , history may have repeated itself. Sergeant Ortiz who was working Sunday night into Monday morning as the Supervisor for the Downtown Detail around the bars was near Club NV on Allyn Street when a motorcycle began revving its engine, quite possibly in an effort to bait a cop to chase him. Ortiz took the bait and the chase was on. According to sources who witnessed the activity said the motorcycle fled at high speed, cutting through downtown lots with Ortiz in hot pursuit. The motorcycle headed towards Pulaski Circle  and the Conlin- Whitehead Highway eventually to head towards 91 north.

At the stop sign from Jewel Street to  Pulaski Circle (by the skating rink), witnesses have stated  that
Ortiz activated his overhead lights and siren and was pursuing the motorcycle at high speed toward the highway, within a short time Ortiz radioed HPD Headquarters  and told the dispatcher that apparently "a citizen" had stopped him and said that there was a bad motorcycle  accident on I-91 North. within seconds , Ortiz was calling for Fire, EMS and an Ambulance for the motorcyclist as if he happened to come across the accident and not because he had continued his pursuit  onto the highway where the motorcycle operator had crashed and died.

How could a "citizen" have witnessed th e accident  and then notified Ortiz back down at Pulaski Circle?  Did they come upon the accident and then back off of 91 and down the Conlin Highway to find Ortiz and advise the officer who just seconds earlier had been in pursuit or was this the second time an Ortiz pursuit had taken a life.

A couple things in this matter will prove interesting. Video is everywhere now. The Attorney General's building at 55 Elm has several cameras recording shots of the street and the area  around Pulaski Circle.  I believe that at least one media outlet has or is in the process of requesting the video through FOI. There are also numerous restaurants  apartment buildings and other places recording 24 hours a day.

There are also Ortiz's fellow police officers who witnessed the events and probably aren't going to jeopardize their careers by lying in something that has the potential to evolve into a criminal investigation.

We all know these motorcycles are a nuisance but is it worth chasing them? In the meantime I will hopefully have the 2007 IAD investigation soon to post here


Wednesday, June 25, 2014

MORE FROM HPD- ANOTHER HOMICIDE WARRANT

 
 
On Saturday June 14, 2014 at approximately 12:56pm, Hartford Police Dispatch received reports of shots fired and a person shot in the area of 66 Main Street South Green. Patrol units were immediately dispatched and responded to the area. Upon arrival the victim, later identified as Huberto O'Neil DOB 07/15/1979 AKA KILLA BEE or KB, was located lying face up on the west sidewalk of Main Street with apparent gunshot wounds to the face/head.

 

Responding Hartford Fire Department Engine #1 and Emergency Medical Technician's (EMTs) arrived shortly after patrol units and began to administer emergency first aid.  O'Neil was subsequently pronounced deceased, on scene, at 1:12pm.

 

A post Mortem examination of O'Neil was conducted by Chief Medical Examiner and the manner of death ruled: Homicide.

 

The suspect, Michael Pryce DOB 04/03/1993, was identified through subsequent investigation by Hartford Police Homicide detectives. On June 18, 2014 an arrest warrant was obtained by detectives charging Pryce with one count of MURDER, C.G.S. 53a-54a. The warrant is active.

 

Pryce’s whereabouts are unknown at this time and information has been received that he is currently homeless. Efforts to locate Pryce have not been successful. Pryce has a judge set $300,000 cash bond only with full extradition across the United States. The firearm in this incident has not been recovered. Pryce may affiliate himself with the BLOODs street gang and may have contacts in the following previous arrest locations:

Arrested on Babcock Street, Edgewood Street, and  Thomaston St. Hartford, CT

Anyone with information on Pryce’s whereabouts is asked to contact Sergeant Brandon O’Brien at (860) 757-8940.



 

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

FROM HPD

 
Miles Harris is wanted for questioning in last weeks reported Church Burglary (see details below, and attached pictures) Harris is also actively wanted and has an outstanding felony warrant for Larceny 2nd in Hartford related to an incident where an elderly man was seriously assaulted. Harris is also a suspect in other Church Burglaries in the area. Efforts to locate Harris have not been successful. We are asking for the communities help in locating him. Anyone with informtation is asked to call Sergeant Brandon O’Brien 860-757-4089
 
Burglary on 6/12/14, case number 14-19064,  650 Blue Hills Avenue “Family Worship Center”.  Items taken;
 
  • 40”Insignia Television ( no serial number)
  • 60” Sharp LC LED Television serial number 206847463 model number 60LE640U
The suspect is this case appeared to be  a black male, with short hair,  thin built, approximately 5’08”, in his late teens or early twenties. The suspect was wearing a brown hooded sweat shirt, baseball hat, red T-shirt under his sweat shirt, dark colored pants, adidas (black and white) sneakers and carrying a blue Yankees string book bag.
The surveillance camera revealed that on 6/11/14 at approximately 2000 hours the suspect entered through the front entrance of the church during bible study. The suspect walked through the hallways of the church and entered the rear office without detection.  It was later determined that the suspect cut one wire to the rear entrance alarm and left the south side window unlocked.
The Pastor called the alarm company in order to reset the alarm that was malfunctioning, unaware that the alarm was tampered with.  The alarm company called the Pastor at 2300 hour later that night because the sensors were setting off but they decided not to call Police thinking that the alarm was malfunctioning.  Surveillance later revealed that the suspect returned and he was the one setting off the sensor but at that time he did not take any items.
Surveillance also revealed the suspect returned for the third time on 6/12/14 at approximately 0900 hours and ripped both of the televisions off the wall and exited through the rear entrance where the alarm was tampered with.  The suspect carried out one television at a time.  -4089.
 

 

Saturday, June 21, 2014

STATE REP. ARCE ISSUES SMALL BUSINESS ALERT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                Contact: Marta Collazo

June 20, 2014                                                               
  860-240-8637                                                                                  

 

 

REP. ARCE ALERTS LOCAL BUSINESSES ON

DEVIOUS SALES OFFERS

 

State Representative Angel Arce (D-Hartford) is alerting business owners about a potentially deceitful sales practice that various local merchants brought to his attention today.

According to various Hispanic-owned Park Street and Franklin Avenue small businesses, sales representatives visited their stores selling them labor laws posters, depicting state and federal laws and regulations that should be posted inside their establishment.

“I received a few calls from local business owners asking me if the state was running a campaign to have these posters in every store,” Rep. Arce said. “After further investigation, I found that a company is selling them posters that these businesses can get free of charge from the state.”

Arce noted, “The ‘business representatives’, go door to door telling small business owners that they have to buy the poster in order to be state compliant, otherwise, they could be fined thousands of dollars for not having them posted. In turn, out of fear, they bought into it.”

The Connecticut Department of Labor has several posters, guides and information FREE of charge to employers and businesses. For more information, please visit:  http://www.ctdol.state.ct.us/ . To get copies of Connecticut state posters with information on wages, hours of work, or working conditions, not posted on their website, please call (860) 263-6790.

Rep. Arce said, “I am talking to state agencies about getting more information about this business to verify the legitimacy of the company and find out more about what they are doing. In the meantime, I urge merchants to stay alert and not invest their money on posters that they can get free of charge.”

 

Friday, June 20, 2014

IT JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE

Just when you think you have heard all of the incompetence, a new story comes along. This one is shocking in so many ways though and probably explains why Hartford's Education process is such a mess.

The Courant posted a story today about Dr. Michael Sharpe, CEO of the Jumoke Charter School. Problem is Sharpe never received his Doctorate and is not a Doctor at all but used  fraudulent credentials to apparently further his career. But lets not stop there. He is apparently also a convicted felon who has done prison time.And none of this was known to the Hartford School System. Board Persident Richard Wareing tells the Courant he was "shocked" and "disappointed" to learn Friday afternoon that Sharpe may have misrepresented himself.

Misrepresented himself?  He perpetrated a fraud on the taxpayers of Hartford and anyone that allowed that to happen needs to resign and Sharpe should be prosecuted for his deeds

Here is the Courant's story

Apparently his explanation to the Courant was that he may not have been as aggressive as he should have been correcting people  when they called him "Doctor". Why would he when it would probably have exposed him immediately as the fraud he appears to be.
Apparently he used the title "Doctor" on his website and even signed letters and correspondence as 'DR". It sounds like he needed to correct himself before he had to worry about others.

This should not provide comfort to any Hartford Parent and they need to question the security process. Who is doing the background checks on the people that come in contact with their children on a daily basis. It appears that the answer is no one

If they didn't know that Sharpe was a fraud, how can they promise that they haven't hired other criminals or even sex offenders in Hartford's Schools.

Maybe if Mayor Segarra is too busy to do his duties as a member of the Board of Education, he  and others should resign to allow someone else on the Board that knows how to use GOOGLE to check  on new hires. Who approved the multi-million dollar contracts to Sharpe without checking his credentials and fulfilling their  responsibility to the City of Hartford and its children

We should be demanding a refund ,and filing legal papers to make sure it happens.. His contracts with Hartford and other municipalities should be terminated immediately.