Sunday, December 24, 2006

Protesters march against NYC police brutality

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Rate a Judge

Rate Judge Jonathan J. Kaplan of Rockville Connecticut Superior Court or any other judge, click here

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Ground Zero for Wrecking America's Youth and the Economy:

There are probably 10 times the needed DCF, Department of Children and Families workers. They are mostly unqualified, overpaid, and only have to work half as long as most out in the private sector.

DCF workers are like KGB. They put people under electronic and other surveillance and can abuse citizens and their families, enter property with police without warrants, and are encouraged to tamper with witnesses, suppress evidence, commit perjury, falsify documents, manufacture evidence, and to take as many kids away as is possible to defraud all Federal Taxpayers in all states of their hard earned, paid in, Federal Tax Dollars.

Retaliation against Whistleblowers and abuse of minorities and poorer residents can go on covertly without official criminals fearing arrests and prosecution. This official immorality has gone on far too long. Unchecked it will bring down America if it already has not done so.

It has been reported that $90k per kid and $150k or more is taken in by the State of Connecticut in Federal Tax Dollars to bolster a corrupt state run like an Organized Crime Syndicate.

There are probably more than 10 times more kids taken away than there should be. Children are devastated for life, might commit suicide, end up as dangerous inmates after committing horrific crimes, never be productive, and/or just be another taxpayer drain.

There are probably 10 times more inmates in prisons than there needs to be.

Those that are deemed "White Trash" and are minorities are kept out of most housing, "the good neighborhoods", and out of most jobs due to racism and the Separate and Unequal Policies of Connecticut, that are also infecting the rest of the nation.

Jim Crow is alive and well, just now a modern, "Dirty Little Secret".

This Official Child, Family, and Citizen Abuse has to stop.

What kind of economy or quality of life will we have as a nation if there are just "The Rich" and "The Locked Up"?


* * * *

CONNECTICUT NEWS
Riverview Still Lacks Order
December 20, 2006
By JOSH KOVNER, Hartford Courant Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN -- Staff members in the Passaic Unit at Riverview Hospital for Children and Youth have a nickname for their ward. They call it Animal House.

On Sunday, the unit, part of the state's only public psychiatric hospital for children, earned its name. Staff members hit the "blue light" - the panic button - as all of the seven deeply troubled teenaged boys in the unit started fighting. Workers from other parts of the 78-bed hospital rushed to respond to the call for "all available."

"One kid said something bad about another," said a veteran staff member. "That's all it takes. The unit was on lockdown after that."

It was one of three flare-ups in the unit between Saturday and Monday, the worker said. He said incidents such as these, and a disturbance at the Lakota Unit in January in which five boys were charged with trying to start a riot, feed into an undercurrent of unease and, at times, near chaos at a hospital that deals with Connecticut's most troubled and vulnerable children.

A new report by the state Department of Children and Families, which runs Riverview, has confirmed a host of fundamental problems and systemic breakdowns at the hospital, where the annual cost of caring for one child exceeds $500,000.

"The hospital remains challenged in effectively meeting the needs of the children it serves," the report says.

As for workers such as those in the Passaic Unit, the report says "the degree of both primary and secondary trauma experienced by staff at all levels appears to be high, and appears to have contributed to varying degrees of desensitization and helplessness."

Joyce Welch, interim superintendent at Riverview, acknowledged Tuesday that there is "a lot of pressure and stress on staff. We need to pay closer attention to staff injuries, and if staff are dealing with particularly hard or difficult cases, then the hospital has to make sure it's lending the proper support."

Welch and DCF's Fernando Muniz said Tuesday that they have been moving for months to implement top-to-bottom reforms, and pledged to have major improvements in place within a year. The officials pointed to statistics - 87 total injuries, assaults, restraints and seclusions for November compared with 149 in June - that they say show the beginnings of a turnaround.

But state Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein, whose office participated in the review, said Tuesday that the findings have an all too familiar ring.

She said concerns about "chaos" and "a disconnect" between treatment units and the administration at the hospital were brought to DCF's attention nearly four years ago.

"The problems at Riverview Hospital should have been obvious and alarming to DCF from the outset," she said in response to the report. She offered more than 20 recommendations to improve oversight, accountability and treatment, and she strongly urged DCF Commissioner Darlene Dunbar to appoint an independent monitor to watch over the reform efforts. DCF spokesman Gary Kleeblatt said Dunbar is considering a monitor.

"My concern," said state Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., "is whether the hospital has the resources to treat children who are referred there from the juvenile justice system. If you overwhelm an institution with cases that are beyond its reach, you're going to have serious problems."

He said DCF would be well served to improve mental health services at the high-security Connecticut Juvenile Training School. The agency, however, has been concentrating on moving children out of the controversial CJTS.

Welch said the hospital isn't in the business of distinguishing between the children who come to the hospital from court or detention centers, and those who don't. She said that with improvements, the hospital should be able to treat them all.

She did acknowledge that problems with communication, treatment approaches and staff support are lengthening the stays of children at the hospital, when DCF's goal is to get them into settings that are less restrictive as soon as possible.

Muniz, executive assistant to Dunbar, said he expects that the planned reforms will ease labor-management tensions at the hospital.

Contact Josh Kovner at jkovner@courant.com.

To FN Lazy to Protect and Serve?

Steven G. Erickson lets official Connecticut have it, live on television:



Connecticut Police are under fire now for being too drunk and high to return police cruisers to the next shift, male police officers drinking in bars with female DCF workers handing out baggies of marijuana, white male officers abusing everyone else, White Police Officers executing Blacks and then the prosecutor purposely botches the case so the racist officer skates, for officers beating and raping citizens, thefts, hanging out with prostitutes, drug dealers, and criminals to manufacture evidence, suppress evidence, tamper with evidence, rig juries, conspire with a corrupt judiciary, etc, etc, etc.

I bought a home in Stafford Springs Connecticut in Oct. of 1994 with my then wife at a HUD auction for $39,000. The four bedroom, one bathroom house had frozen pipes, no heat, needed a roof, electrical work, and so much more. I completely went through the house at 3 Brown Ave. Ext. Brown Ave Ext. was listed as "Cat Alley" on the deed which was down the street from the Connecticut State Police, Troop C, horse barn, Town Hall, a Church, and the restaurants and bars downtown. Stafford Springs is an old mill town and is probably the site of the first Northern Bed and Breakfasts and America's first resort town.

"Cat Alley" was named such, not because there were cats in the alley, but because there were cats of the human variety plying their wares.

I had gone the Connecticut HUD auction because the bank was a day late on getting me the approval for the Massachusetts HUD auction. The Connecticut one was just after.

I then learned about the teen alcoholism, drug, vandalism, and crime problem in downtown Stafford Springs, Connecticut.

Police officers, town and state, told me I was dumb for having bought property in a crime area and said they did not have time for youth crimes or to help out.

I helped start a Crime Watch with other residents and we met weekly. I often was a speaker. I asked Stafford Police Officer Prochaska to take a walk with me on any Friday or Saturday night as I wanted to point out where the teen drug dealers, underage drinkers, vandals, and the underage girls that were on crack cocaine hung out to find "customers" to help them with their addiction.

Prochaska threatened me with arrest if I persisted on wanting police to deal with youth crime, wanted him to walk a beat with me, or to deal with the downtown drug and crime problem.

My wife later fell down the stairs with the Flu while I was sleeping. I dialed 911. Stafford Police Officer Prochaska was there to push and assault me, telling my wife, "He pushed you down the stairs, didn't he?", "You're resisting", as he was slamming me against my house. He could not get my wife to falsely accuse me of anything. And, I called to the ambulance people, telling them that I was doing nothing wrong, why is this officer shoving me around?

I then, after owning the house a number of months took a four country tour of Europe and the former USSR for over a month, going everywhere, walking, taking trains, planes, buses, and having the time of our lives. And, there was not one time we were even concerned about being attacked or robbed.

I came home to Stafford Springs, Connecticut, and soon after happened upon a powdered cocaine dealer, Peter Panciera. He outweighs me by about 80 lbs and in probably 5 or 6 inches taller than me. Panciera accused me of being an undercover cop in front of his drug customers and told me to leave or else, and then when I refused he beat me and bit into my ear after picking me up with my feet dangling and took a bite into my ear.

I dialed 911 with blood dripping down my neck, down my chest, all the way down soaking my underwear.

The drug customers told Peter to leave the scene, because he was "holding" and when the police came the customers did not know who the guy was that attacked me.

I wanted to know if my attacker had HIV, Hep, or some disease as he bit me.

The police wanted to drop the matter. I wanted them to do their jobs, so with 3 cruisers we toured all the bars in town to find Peter Panciera in the Finish Line Cafe.

I called the Lt. Trapp of the Stafford Police Department because I did not want to have to deal with Prochaska a.k.a. "Fat Frank" of what the Connecticut State Police and town residents called, "The Town Clowns".

About 6 weeks later I was arrested in front of my wife. We had been at home just watching television. I found out that police had re-interviewed the drug customers and they "suddenly" remembered their long last friend and that I had attacked him and he was in fear of me. What!!!???

My attacker was not arrested and I was told to plead guilty and go to prison for a year and a half for breach of peace and assault 3rd or face a trial which would have been at taxpayer expense. I told the prosecutor that I would not hire a lawyer, but would just play the 911 tape and have my attacker stand next to me at the trial and then ask the jury directly, "If you were me, would you be out attacking this man?" After going to the court 7 or more times and asked why not plead guilty and then not lose my job. I was a contractor and could make my schedule flexible so that Connecticut weasel court tactic did not work on me.

My wife and I decided the main reason for our getting divorced was our moving to Stafford Springs, Connecticut, and my wanting to stay and buy rental properties that were boarded up to fix them up and rent them out.

After we divorced, I spent 100's of thousands of dollars and years fixing up the properties I bought in Stafford Springs and Somersville Connecticut.

I got fed up and wrote President George W. Bush on 9-15-01 saying I was under siege and needed police protection and service and that small business and downtown property owners needed judicial fairness and protection and service to survive.

I got answers back from HUD, the SBA, and the White House that indicated Bush had actually read my letter. I was attacked on my property 10-11-01, and PLEASE NOTICE THE TWO DATES POSTED IN THIS STORY.

A mugger, a violent felon, attacked me from behind on my property at night from behind. He demanded money and said he would kill me if I did not. Brian Caldwell was never arrested for attacking me, nor for trying to attacking me or trying to attack me at least 6 more times. I called State Senator after each incident, and after police refused to protect and serve, nor to do and honest investigation of the incidents on my property that caused only me to be arrested.

I could never get police to come, of if they did, hours would have gone by. They were right there to arrest me after I was jumped, beaten, nearly robbed, and ended the attack with pepper spray.

Brian Caldwell admitted demanding money from me while threatening to kill me stated this under oath at my trial for assault 3rd and breach of peace. I had tried to have Judge Jonathan Kaplan removed from the bench and the prosecutor that was to prosecute me BEFORE I was attacked on my property. A criminal was given immunity to prosecute me for "overreacting" to being beaten and nearly robbed on my own property for having used pepper spray. Self-defense is not legal in Connecticut.

A video tape of how to find me guilty was played to the jury. The tape did not contain information about reasonable doubt or how to find me innocent.

My lawyer, Michael H. Agranoff, told me that Judge Jonathan Kaplan told him he was not allowed to dispute Connecticut State Troopers, Amaral and Langlois statements and perjury, the prosecutor, and that he was not allowed to defend me.

Agranoff refused to strike a juror at my request that was a worker for the police, possibly soon to be a police officer. This man became jury foreman.

I had no chance.

For having used pepper spray on my property, I was sentenced to a year in prison, 3 years probation, losing contact with my daughter, my pets, my retirement, my home, my credit, health insurance, my ability to get most housing and jobs, and the sum total of my life's work, AND FOR WHAT!!!???

-Steven G. Erickson a.k.a. Blogger Vikingas

Click Here for more information on my case and about move victims of Connecticut Police, Prosecutorial, Official, and Judicial Abuse

The Stafford Springs and Somersville Connecticut properties that I fixed up:



The work I do now to keep warm and fed:



Kristine Blake, formerly of the Connecticut Department of Retardation made a complaint and found herself falsely accused. Had she not been out of the country with a stamped passport, the false allegations that Manchester Connecticut Police knowingly took from other DMR workers encouraged to help retaliate against whistleblower Kristine Blake, she could have easily just gone to prison. Her story on the news:



A teenager allegedly gets beaten up by Colchester Connecticut Officers, Nardella and Thomas of wearing baggy pants. Phil Inkel sees this and lodges a police misconduct complaint. Phil Inkel gets beaten up at the Colchester McDonald's and US Marine Stephen Murzin returning home from service to his parents' sees Inkel being beaten up by Officers Thomas and Nardella. Stephen Murzin, son of now former Hartford Connecticut Narcotics Detective, Richard Murzin, and his brother Ian were pulled out of their parents' house in the middle of the night to be beaten by Colchester Connecticut Police Officers, Thomas and Nardella, and a Connecticut State Police Officer at Troop K HQ. Nardella and Thomas gave police informant Todd Vachon $10,000 to whack Stephen Murzin and/or Phil Inkel and got scared and told authorities. Stephen Murzin was later stabbed 13 times by a Felon on probation, also an alleged police informant. The Felon stabbed two other people, and later was caught, and for attempted murder later dropped to simple assault, received no jail time for almost killing 3 people while on probation. On Connecticut News, Stephen, Ian, and Richard Murzin:

The Difference between being Rich, White, and Connected AND the NOT is:

If you are former Governor John G. Rowland [story and picture], you can be a corrupt MF pretty much everyday of you life, being an arrogant, pompous ass, take bribes, live life like a rockstar, get caught for spending way more than you make, say you are broke, do a lame minimum jail sentence, and then get out and buy a $500,000 house.

If you are Black like Ernie Newton, or anyone average and not Connecticut, there is a separate and unequal BBQ Justice System for you.

Click Here for a story on the Connecticut Department of Domestic Spying

It is not ok to take bribes or break the law, but why should White and Connected, former Governor Rowland do 100 more times damage to the public trust, take much more, more often than Ernie Newton, and Rowland gets a year, and Newton faces some real hardship.

* * * *
* * * *

CONNECTICUT NEWS
Judge: Expect No Leniency
Lawyers Seeking A Reduced Prison Sentence For Ex-State Sen. Newton
December 20, 2006
By CHRISTOPHER KEATING, Capitol Bureau Chief, Hartford Courant

BRIDGEPORT -- When he was sentenced in February, former state Sen. Ernest Newton got five years in prison for taking a bribe, not paying his taxes and pilfering more than $40,000 in campaign contributions for personal use.

And while an appeals court has ordered the trial judge to explain his reasoning in meting out five years, that trial judge on Tuesday indicated he will show no leniency for the disgraced Bridgeport legislator.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Alan H. Nevas said from the bench that "the grounds for the sentence that was imposed were adequate" and that he has every intention "to impose the same sentence."

At issue with Newton's lawyers is which federal sentencing guidelines for Newton's convictions Nevas used: 2003 guidelines with an upper range of three years and five months, or 2005 guidelines with an upper range of seven years and three months.

Guidelines aside, the maximum penalty under the law on Newton's convictions is 35 years in prison.

Nevas will review legal briefs from both sides and hold a hearing March 6, during which Newton can address the judge. After that, Nevas will make his official ruling - one that he telegraphed on Tuesday.

Newton was not at the proceeding, but will be brought from the prison camp at Fort Dix, N.J., for the March hearing. He is serving time in the same prison as former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim, but one of Newton's attorneys declined comment on whether the two former politicians speak to each other.

Newton's once-promising political career came crashing down last year when he pleaded guilty to three felony counts for accepting a $5,000 bribe, evading taxes and using campaign contributions to pay for car repairs, cellphone calls and other personal bills. Less than one week before his guilty plea in September 2005, Newton resigned his Senate seat in a fiery speech, calling himself "the Moses of my people" and saying he would still win in a landslide if he ran for office again.

Known for wearing purple suits in the Navy blue, buttoned-down state Senate, Newton gained a reputation as a champion of the poor and as a longtime proponent of the so-called millionaires' tax on the state's richest residents.

Before his sentencing, Newton had told friends that he expected to receive less prison time than former Gov. John G. Rowland, who was released early after being sentenced to one year and one day.

The difference, prosecutors said, is that Newton pleaded guilty to three felonies and Rowland one - and that an FBI wiretap got Newton discussing a bribe on tape.

In sentencing Newton earlier this year, Nevas - himself a former state legislator from Westport - excoriated Newton. The 78-year-old judge said his own time in the legislature was among the best years of his life and that it was "inconceivable" that any legislator could place his office up for sale.

On Tuesday, Nevas said five years in prison was appropriate because of "the defendant's repeated and continuous betrayal of the public trust" and because Newton was involved in corruption at the same time as the high-profile Rowland impeachment hearings in June 2004.

The battle over Newton's prison time involves the time frame of the crimes.

Nevas used the 2005 federal sentencing guidelines, which called for a sentence of 70 months to 87 months. But Newton's lawyers said the 2003 guidelines of 33 months to 41 months should be used because the bribery took place in September 2004 - before the 2005 guidelines took effect.

Nevas said he would impose the same sentence, regardless of which guidelines were cited.

One of Newton's attorneys, Joseph Martini of Southport, said the older guidelines would bring a ruling that is more fair to Newton.

"You can't increase the punishment for a crime that has already occurred and apply it retroactively," Martini said.

An admitted ex-drug addict from the inner city, Newton is a man of contradictions who is also a former music teacher and an accomplished pianist of classical and gospel music. He was simultaneously a fighter for the poorest of the poor and a politician who admitted taking bribes.

Always known for a quip, Newton was one of the most colorful legislators and one with a reputation for malapropisms. He once expressed his concern about an issue by saying, "I'm just afraid of opening up a panacea's box."

Friday, December 15, 2006

Connecticut State Police can't be trusted to police themselves

More than ever, we need Civilian Oversight of Police to see that there are ethics, laws are obeyed, and that police act in our best interest, not just their own interests.

Human laziness and other human nature comes out when there is no oversight.


CONNECTICUT NEWS

No Troopers On State Police Reform Group

4:59 PM EST, December 15, 2006
By TRACY GORDON FOX, The Hartford Courant
COLCHESTER -- On Gov. M. Jodi Rell's newly appointed commission to oversee the reform of the state police internal affairs unit, there is a state representative, a judge, a prosecutor, a local police chief, and even a town council member.

But there is not one state trooper on it, an omission that has angered some members of the department's union, who said they asked for the outside inquiry in the first place.

Rell announced she would form the commission on Dec. 4, the day a scathing 168-page report by the New York State Police and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was released on the state police internal affairs unit. The report outlined misconduct and improper influence in cases against troopers that involved domestic violence, sexual assaults, drunk driving and larceny.

Former Republican state Rep. Robert Farr, of West Hartford, who unsuccessfully challenged Blumenthal will chair the commission, and Public Safety Commissioner Leonard C. Boyle will act as an ex-officio member. Boyle was a former federal prosecutor and East Hartford police officer.

Besides Farr and Boyle, the commission will include state Rep. Stephen Dargan, D-West Haven, Co-Chairman of the General Assembly's Public Safety Committee, Superior Court Judge Maureen Keegan of Cheshire, Glastonbury Town Council Chairwoman Susan Karp, who will serve as a member of the public, State's Attorney Walter Flanagan of Danbury, Milford Police Chief Thomas Flaherty, who is also chairman of the Police Officer Standards and Training Council of Connecticut, and former U.S. Marshal John O'Connor of West Haven.

Union President Steven Rief called it "a slap in the face," that not one of the 1155 union members was named to the commission.

"I'm extremely disappointed the union does not have a position on this commission," Rief said. "The only reason we even had the New York State Police and the attorney general's investigation is because this union came forward to the commissioner.

"It's an injustice that defies logic," Rief said.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Election Fraud and Obstruction of Justice out of a Connecticut Governor's Office?:

POLITICS

Report: Top Rell Aide `Misled' Committee

December 14, 2006
By CHRISTOPHER KEATING And JON LENDER, Hartford Courant Staff Writers
Gov. M. Jodi Rell's chief of staff, M. Lisa Moody, "misled" a legislative committee by giving sworn testimony that was "not credible" regarding a Rell fundraiser last year, according to a draft copy of a new legislative report.

The report, obtained Wednesday by The Courant, also says that state elections enforcement chief Jeffrey Garfield should face "some form of reprimand or censure" because he deleted important information from an investigative report and released the unedited version only after hearings were completed last spring.

Garfield "exhibited poor judgment and allowed personal relationships to impact his investigation and reporting" of the investigation into Moody's involvement in a Rell fundraiser in December 2005 at the Marco Polo restaurant in East Hartford, the report says.

Neither Moody nor Garfield would comment Wednesday night.

The report, written by Democratic staff members and leaders of the government administration and elections committee, will be considered at a Democratic caucus at 1 p.m. today at the state Capitol complex in Hartford. The document contains 16 recommendations for legislation in an effort to prevent future instances of impropriety and coziness that Democrats said was present in the case.

Moody was suspended by Rell for two weeks after admitting that she handed out invitations to commissioners on state time. Her actions led to seven days of often-contentious legislative hearings in May. Sixteen of Rell's commissioners or deputies were fined $500 each to settle a case under a state law that prohibits those officials from soliciting campaign contributions from their subordinates.

The 14-page report quotes Moody as telling at least one senior staff member, "I am not twisting your arm, but I am," regarding the fundraiser.

The report also states that Moody told one deputy commissioner that "this meeting isn't happening" and another that "it's after 5" - meaning that the workday was officially over for state employees.

Republicans on the committee have complained bitterly that the Democrats were conducting a witch hunt against Moody and had failed to investigate other Democrats for similar campaign-finance violations. The Democrats said they had an obligation to investigate serious allegations regarding the governor's office. The Democrat-written report is strongly worded against Moody.

"Based on the entire record before this committee, we conclude that Ms. Moody's sworn testimony before the GAE Committee was not credible," the report states. "We conclude that Ms. Moody consciously and repeatedly distributed fundraising invitations to gubernatorial staff members and to state commissioners and deputy commissioners with full knowledge that her actions violated the governor's own ethics policy and would result in illegal campaign practices."

Republican committee member Rep. Robert Farr harshly criticized the draft.

"I guess the Democrats didn't realize that the election is over," the West Hartford lawmaker said. "Why are they still running their campaign? Why in the world would you be doing this after the election is over? My assumption was there wasn't going to be a report. To have the report come out and attack Lisa Moody six months after she testified is ridiculous."

The Republicans, Farr said, had been kept in the dark on the issue by the committee's Democratic majority.

"How do we get a copy of the report?" Farr asked.

Moody's actions and the committee hearings were highly publicized, but Rell's poll ratings never suffered. She defeated New Haven Mayor John DeStefano in November's election 63 percent to 35 percent.

Although Moody was investigated, she was never prosecuted by Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane, who ruled in September that "there is no evidence that would support a criminal prosecution" on charges of perjury or other lesser offenses. Kane had studied whether Moody perjured herself on May 16, when she testified at a legislative hearing that she did not fully read an ethics memo that it turned out she had edited.

The draft report makes numerous recommendations, including prohibiting the chief of staff of any governor or the legislative caucuses from soliciting campaign finance contributions. The chiefs of staff for the House speaker and the Senate president pro tem, for example, are highly powerful and can help ensure that certain phrases are inserted into legislation that even many lawmakers don't know about during the crush of legislation at the end of the session.

Other recommendations are:

Strengthening the law to prohibit state employees from delivering fundraising materials on state time.

Clarifying the law about unclassified employees, such as Moody, regarding their use of state phones, copiers and computers for political activities.

Creating a new law that would prohibit the State Elections Enforcement Commission's executive director from being involved in the settlement of any cases.

Strengthening the laws regarding contempt of the General Assembly and interference with investigations.

Mandating that the campaign treasurer - not the campaign manager - must serve as the main contact person for a campaign.

Requiring that the campaign manager's name be added to registration forms filed with the State Elections Enforcement Commission.

The draft report is subject to review and change by the Democratic committee caucus today. Sources said the report, which is signed by Rep. Christopher Caruso, the committee co-chairman, and Vice Chairman Sen. Edward Meyer, was the result of the collaboration of several people.

Reached Wednesday, Meyer declined comment. Caruso said he would not comment on the details until he meets with the caucus. Caruso, a Bridgeport Democrat, said that no Republicans had seen the draft and that the Democrats had been asked to keep the report confidential. He was surprised that the draft had been released, asking, "How did you get it?"

The full committee is to hold a public meeting to discuss the report on Dec. 21, when the panel is expected to vote on the recommendations.

The report calls for Garfield's censure or reprimand because his investigation report deleted certain facts that the committee never knew about until after the hearings were closed. That included deleting the chief state's attorney's "interview notes" from two investigators who had spoken to Rell late last year, and deleting all references to DPUC Commissioner Anne George, "who kiddingly referred to Ms. Moody as `John Rowland.'"

The reference to George, an attorney, came up because then-gubernatorial aide Dan Moreland was said to have told investigators that when Moody handed George the fundraiser invitations, George responded, "Are you nuts?" George then told Moody, "OK, John Rowland" - a reference to the former governor who served a federal prison sentence on a corruption-related charge.



Contact Christopher Keating at ckeating@courant.com.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Qualified Immunity means officials can do as they please

Get rid of Qualified Immunity.

Rumsfeld faces personal suit by detainees

Former prisoners accuse him of torture techniques in Iraq, Afghanistan

By Joel Seidman

Producer

NBC News

Updated: 9:59 p.m. ET Dec 7, 2006



On Friday, the U.S. District Court in Washington will be the scene of a parting shot at outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Former detainees represented by human rights groups accuse him — along with a top general of the Iraq war, a former commander of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and a commander of U.S. military intelligence and police forces — with “derelictions of duty and command” and promoting the practice of inflicting “physical and psychological injuries” on civilians held by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The case of Ali v. Rumsfeld, to be heard before Chief Judge Thomas Hogan, pits lawyers from two human rights organizations representing nine former detainees at Abu Ghraib and the Bagram military base in Afghanistan, with attorneys representing Rumsfeld, Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski and Col. Thomas Pappas.

The case is an attempt to have U.S. officials held accountable for alleged abuse of Iraqi and Afghan civilians who were never held as enemy combatants or charged with any crime.

The former detainees accuse Rumsfeld and others of being personally responsible for approving torture techniques and violating the U.S. Constitution. Rumsfeld argues that they are all immune from liability.

Rumsfeld, to be replaced later this month by Robert Gates, who was confirmed by the Senate this week, argues “that alien military detainees held outside the United States are not generally entitled to constitutional protections.”

Rumsfeld’s lawyers claim qualified immunity
His lawyers contend that under the qualified immunity doctrine, “federal officials are immune from suit” unless they violate a clearly established constitutional right. They say that aliens held in a military detention facility in the field of battle abroad simply do not have established constitutional rights during their alleged detention and abuse.

The former detainees who filed the lawsuit say they were all eventually released from detention and never charged with any crime or wrongdoing.

The detainees — five were held at Abu Ghraib and four at Bagram — accuse Rumsfeld and the others of subjecting them to “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including severe and repeated beatings, cutting with knives, sexual humiliation and assault, confinement in a wooden box, forcible sleep and sensory deprivation, mock executions, death threats, and restraint in contorted and excruciating positions,” according to court documents.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First argue that Rumsfeld “authorized an abandonment of our nation’s inviolable and deep-rooted prohibition against torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of detainees in U.S. military custody.” They say these acts precipitated “further violations of law and directly led to the abuse of Plaintiffs and other detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Pattern of rights abuse alleged
The human rights attorneys will also argue Friday that high-ranking commanders “permitted and implemented” an unlawful policy, pattern or practice of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees.

The suit seeks compensatory damages and a judicial declaration that the legal rights of the prisoners were violated under the Constitution, the Geneva accords and other international law.

Although allegations in the suit are the equivalent of war crimes, it is a civil case, not a criminal one. Only the U.S. government is empowered to prosecute war crimes in criminal court or before a military court.

The above found here on the web

More Blind Justice

If you are Black or White, Woman or Man, there is separate and unequal justice for you.

CONNECTICUT NEWS

Woman Spared Prison In Sex Case

6:07 PM EST, December 13, 2006
By DON STACOM, The Hartford Courant
BRISTOL -- A 25-year-old group home worker accused of having sex with a mentally disabled youth last year pleaded guilty Wednesday to fourth-degree sexual assault.

Under terms of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped more serious charges against Jennifer E. Phillips. She won't go to prison, but will be on probation for three years and will be barred from working again with the disabled.

Phillips was initially charged with second-degree sexual assault. Police said an 18-year-old resident at a group home in Bristol for mentally disabled teenagers reported that Phillips began kissing him soon after his 18th birthday, and that the relationship eventually led to intercourse.

Phillips' job gave her some supervisory authority over residents, and that was the basis of the case against her. The young man was mentally competent to give consent and the relationship was consensual, a prosecutor said, but even so state law forbids sex between someone who is confined in an institution and a worker who has authority over him or her.

A Superior Court judge will sentence Phillips on Feb. 2. Under the plea bargain, she will get a one-year sentence that will be suspended, followed by three years of probation, according to Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney Stephen Preleski.

Phillips will be required to undergo any sexual offender evaluations or psychological treatment that probation officials require. Also, she will be barred from any contact with the young man, and will have to pay his out-of-pocket expenses for therapy.

Preleski said Wednesday that Phillips has no criminal record, and that there was no indication of sexual contact with any other residents of the group home.

Phillips was represented by attorney Stephen Turner Jr. The prosecution has agreed that she will not have to register as a sex offender. But if the judge decides at sentencing that she must register, Phillips will be allowed to withdraw her plea and go to trial.

Contact Don Stacom at dstacom@courant.com.

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This post accepts anonymous comments. To share, click on white envelope.

Attn Connecticut State Police Commissioner Leonard C. Boyle:


Connecticut State Police Commissioner Leonard C. Boyle


Former Connecticut State Police Commissioner Arthur L. Spada

Attn Leonard C. Boyle and to whom is now honestly investigating citizen complaints into Connecticut Police Misconduct:

I have been asked by friends and others to give you an honest chance, Mr. Leonard C. Boyle. They say that you are former FBI and will do what is right. I have been angry about my false arrest and imprisonment and have lashed out angrily, probably too often, but nonetheless, I believe I have honest complaints that should result in officers being investigated, arrested, prosecuted, and put in prison for crimes committed.

If police officers are acting illegally with drug dealers, prostitutes, criminals, and organized crime figures there is a real problem. If Connecticut Police Officers are so abused by there own and Connecticut State Police Internal Affairs has to be taken over by New York State Police Internal Affairs, it signifies that the Police System in Connecticut is beyond repair unless revamped.

If Connecticut Police can be too drunk or high to return cruisers back to the station for the next shift there is more than an obvious problem.

If a police officer's sons can be arrested and beaten up at the station because the father, a police officer, investigates organized criminal activity and Mafia drug dealers, there is a real problem. If the officers can pay $10,000 cash to Todd Vashon to "whack" those that made the police misconduct complaint against them, there is a real problem.

If male police officers are handing out bags of marijuana to female DCF workers while allegedly drunk in bars, there is a problem. If there are stories of widespread false arrests and imprisonment for bogus DWI arrests, there is a problem.

If there are reports that citizens are targets for being discredited and falsely arrested for making police misconduct complaints, there is a problem.

If a Willimantic Police Officer that discovers Patriarca Mafia Family operatives in business of distribution of drugs and then is shot while wearing handcuffs by other officers, there is something wrong. If the Chief put the officer in jeopardy by making a special midnight shift walking beat just for the officer in the most dangerous areas, there is something wrong.

If former Norwalk Mayor Bill Collins can go in front of the legislature, Dec, 1996, and on camera claim that police officers vandalized his home, wore ski masks to abduct citizens to beat them at vacant factories, with no proper investigation, there is something wrong. Things have only gotten much worse.

Ritt Goldstein, a former prominent small business owner, also testified at a legislative meeting on camera regarding police misconduct and the need for Civilian Oversight of Police and was so terrorized by Connecticut Police that he fled to Sweden to request political asylum.

I have a YouTube video of someone that testified in front of the legislature regarding hundreds of cases of officers raping, beating, robbing, or even murdering citizens with no investigations taking place, that is more than proof that things were bad, but are now far worse. The individual may have taught at UConn.

I would like former Connecticut State Police Commissioner Arthur L. Spada investigated for fraud and theft. I would also like to see him investigated for discrimination based on his demoting a woman out of his office because of her gender.

If a police officer can be charged with felony theft for driving his or her cruiser home for lunch, Spada is guilty of more serious breaches of the law. Falsifying official logs is no laughing matter. Having two taxpayer paid drivers and putting in going to see "Dr. Flog" while out golfing instead of working is criminal, if proven.

Spada should be prosecuted and have to pay back any monies owed federal and state taxpayers.
An investigation into defrauding the Homeland Security Fund should also be looked into as I recall newspaper stories where Spada could not account for Homeland Security Funds.

I would also like Spada investigated for obstructing justice in the criminal prosecution of his former chief of staff. I would like Spada investigated for allegedly sending officers out to ruin me, falsely arrest, and act in collusion with Rockville Connecticut Judge Jonathan Kaplan to falsely imprison me to prevent me from suing police, proposing Civilian Oversight of Police to elected officials, and from spouting off about Connecticut Police Misconduct and Kangaroo Courts in newspapers.

Heads of police should not be able to retaliate against citizens and operate an Organized Crime Syndicate as a Mafia Don while being paid with tax dollars.

I believe it was former Rockville Judge Spada's call on whether I was illegally denied AR which would have resulted in my charges being erased, in my keeping my home, small business, and rental properties, to prevent me from suing police for violating my civil rights, in proposing Civilian Oversight of Police to elected officials, and to keep me from embarrassing police in newspapers with what I wrote about the crime, heroin, crack cocaine, and youth problem due to police officer laziness and bad policies that mainly centered around revenue collection of mostly honest citizens, not criminal correction and crime prevention.

Donald Christmas, also a Connecticut landlord that got "mouthy" to reporters, that wanted Civilian Oversight of Police, honest protection and service, and honest courts, also was attacked on his property by an Enfield Connecticut Police Officer's informant, a 16 year old prostitute girlfriend of the officer.

Only Donny faced a year in prison, no deals, at a fixed Judge Scheinblum Enfield, Connecticut, Superior Court trial, at taxpayers' expense. The officer later left the scene of an accident in a known drug and prostitute area. Do you see a pattern of abuse of citizens that test Free Speech, want to sue police, and that wanted elected officials to do something about the police, Connecticut Court, and official corruption problem?

I would like Col. Barry investigated for sparring with me over the Connecticut State Police Domestic Spying Program also known as MATRIX. I wrote a letter to Barry regarding being a target of Connecticut State Police harassment where no adequate investigation into possibly felony misconduct was occurring under his command. I believe knowing about felonies being committed and not notifying the proper authorities is a crime. I should not talk to elected officials and then have police give me answers back.

I was told by former Representative Mordasky's legislative aid that because I had proposed Civilian Oversight of Police and had gotten mouthy in newspapers that a Connecticut State Police legislative liaison told her I face retaliation. I would like that State Police legislative liaison investigated and information used to arrest and prosecute guilty officers in my case.

I would like to lodge a complaint against Lt. Wheeler. Wheeler sent me a letter back regarding Sgt. Sticca of Troop C, Tolland Connecticut State Police saying I "confessed" while being held in lock up at Troop C, Tolland, CT, 10-12-01 in the AM hours. I asked that Sticca be arrested for making a false statement to police and that the lock up tapes be used as evidence against Sticca for acting in a concert of retaliation against me involving other officers.

I would like to make a complaint against Captain Davoran, formerly LT of Troop C. I talked with him for possibly a half hour or more. I faxed and wrote the troop. His excuse for the retaliation against me was that his only job was to "Protect the Integrity of the System", so if he knew of felonies being committed by officers under him and he did nothing he is guilty of crimes. I would also like Davoren, a.k.a. "Dad" to Barbara Sattal, allegedly offering Sattal $10,000 to set me up for a DUI, narcotics being planted on me, and me then being beaten up by officers to be also arrested for assault on a police officer.

I would like to lodge complaints against LT Fox of Troop C. I believe he covered for officers under him and tried to intimidate and terrorize me out of making a complaint at Troop C, Attorney Michael H. Agranoff, in attendance regarding complaining about the false arrest of me by Troopers Langlois and Amaral. I also complained about Sgt. Sticca and the claim that I confessed which is an outright fabrication. I believe Agranoff was later threatened by police and/or by Judge Jonathan Kaplan's orders regarding setting me up for false imprisonment and a rigged trial with a VHS tape played that tampered with the jury, possibly at the insturction of Spada.

I wrote the US Dept. of Justice in Washington DC asking them to require Spada to take the USDOJ webpage regarding community police of the Connecticut State Police website, emailing the text to Commissioner Spada, to see if I could put markers in a rigged trial. It is my belief that it was already decided that I would get prison for being a crime victim on my own Connecticut property and that the only way I could "mark" the abuse would be in the trial transcripts. Kaplan flipping out on me showed that he had acted illegally in collusion with Spada and police. I would like that investigated. I would like to know if any citizen, ever, in Connecticut's history could have a criminal given immunity for trying to rob him or her, for trying to rob the individual on the individual's property, where the witness on the stand admits threatening to kill the homeowner if money is not handed over, under oath and on the stand, where the victim of the crime gets a year in prison, 3 years probation for assault 3rd and breach of peace, guilty or not.

I would like to know if ANY Connecticut citizen ever got prison for Assault 3rd and Breach of Peace if not on probation and without a criminal record. That alone is a HUGE RED FLAG.

I would like LT Wack of Connecticut State Police Internal Affairs investigated for refusing to investigate my Connecticut State Police Misconduct complaints and for trying to terrorize and threaten me for having made complaints against police officers that were "his friends".

I would like to lodge a complaint against Sgt. Izzarelli. He told me that all landlords are slumlords and all contractors are drug addicts and drunks as a reason that I did not get police protection and service. I feel he did not do an adequate, thorough, or an honest investigation into Amaral and Langlois.

I would like to lodge a complaint against Stafford Connecticut Police Officer and Connecticut Corrections LT, Desso.

While walking my beat as a founder of the Stafford Springs Crime Watch I recall watching Desso kicking and beating Brian Caldwell on the sidewalk while Caldwell was wearing handcuffs. Desso seemed to want to arrest me for having witnessed him kicking and beating Caldwell on the ground and in handcuffs.

My false arrest and imprisonment involves being arrested to being mugged in my dark driveway by Caldwell for having used pepper spray receiving a year in prison, 3 years probation where Caldwell was given immunity for attempted robbery, stalking, harassment, assaulting me, and for threatening me with bodily injury and death.

Desso told me I was "kicked out of Connecticut" upon my release from prison and allegedly asked his friend, Connecticut Probation Officer Eric Ellison to give me a hard time and to threaten me with more prison if I contacted the media or if I lodged complaints against officers. Desso also illegally read my legal mail and left me out in the cold on a loading dock to suffer in Winter winds at the prison.

I would like lodge complaints against former Stafford Resident Trooper Mulcahey and Stafford Police Officer Prochaska for allegedly offering Peter Coukos, an alleged alcoholic and illegal and legal drug abuser, with possible obvious mental illness, help in fraudulently obtaining a pistol permit to carry concealed guns on one's person for assaulting me and terrorizing myself and my daughter out of Connecticut. Prochaska and Mulcahey told me that if I did not leave Connecticut I would be arrested and charged with something.

I would like to complain about Troopers Amaral and Langlois who falsely arrested me for 10-11-01 after I told them I was a victim of an assault, attempted robbery, and had been stalked and had my life threatened for weeks before Brian Caldwell, a violent drug using, alcoholic Felon, caught me in my dark driveway.

The officers refused to take my complaint or that of my tenant Susan J. and then committed perjury at my trial regarding the not taking of my complaint at my trial. Troopers Langlois and Amaral tried to confiscate my work van "as evidence", paraded me in handcuffs around my houses, and left me out with a spotlight on me where I was placed on the hood of a cruiser facing out near Rt. 190 to further harass and embarrass me in front of my neighbors and tenants of 3 and 5 Church St. Stafford Springs, Connecticut, two multi family houses that I had spent years and hundreds of thousands of dollars fixing up from a boarded up condition.

Police Officers should act honestly, ethically, legally, and in the best interest of the public. Please do an honest investigation into the officers that have broken laws, violated my rights, and harmed the economy at State and Federal Taxpayer expense.

I would like to see Connecticut Police authorities initiate actions that result in the false charges and false criminal record be expunged and that there is action taken to compensate me for pain and suffering and other losses.

The above is to my best belief and knowledge,

Steven G. Erickson a.k.a. Blogger Vikingas

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Former Norwalk Connecticut Mayor Bill Collins talks about police wearing ski masks abducting citizens to beat them at abandoned waterfront warehouses. Bill goes on to talk about police vandalizing his house and car, throwing beer bottles on his porch, and plastering police union stickers on his house and car:


Do White Male Connecticut Police Officers get drunk with Female DCF workers and hand out baggies of pot?:



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March 26, 2010, update to this post, click:

http://thesrv.blogspot.com/2010/03/posterboy.html

US Domestic Spying and Abuse, Poster Boy?


Is John A. Danaher III a posterboy for systemic citizen and US Constitution abuse? [more]

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Rich, "The Fixer"





There is an unholy marriage between the FBI, Connecticut State Police, local police, members of the Connecticut Judiciary, and too many Town Hall workers.

There used to be a bar called "Larks" in downtown Stafford Springs, Connecticut.

"Rich" ran it. Peter T. was a bartender and ran an illegal gambling operation out of the bar. "Rich" was allegedly a former Israeli freedom fighter, maybe got into intelligence work, and married a FBI agent, now retired, "Linda" and had the bar in her name.

Peter T. was also allegedly Jewish Mafia. His relatives allegedly own or owned "Uncle Al's" and other Hartford Connecticut Strip Clubs.

"The Finish Line" and "The Springs House" were bars that were in competition with Rich's business. Rich played cards almost everyday with the town's selectman in Arizona Restaurant from before noon on. Money would change hands, even a small suit case of cash on at least one occasion. Bribery in Stafford Springs, is as bad as it is in "Mob Central" Enfield, Connecticut.

169 Elm St in Enfield is an interesting location. The owner of the insurance agency told me that in order for him to get a bigger sign in his parking lot, he had to lose at an illegal high stakes poker game, where officials ran the game in a Rt 5 liquor store backroom. That was a way to "bribe" to get the bigger sign.

Like in Stafford and other Connecticut towns, rental property owners and other small business that are either minority owned or serve minorities are targets to be taken down by police, town hall, and the rigged courts. The Jewish Mafia and other organized crime are part of the police, the courts and marry and interact with elected officials. The other business on 169 Elm St is a convenience store. They were made to get a 25 k plus sewer drain system only required of restaurants. Had the owner been white they would not need have gotten the drain system.

"Frankie's Firehouse Pizza" joint was an inside joke in Enfield. The owner of the insurance agency told me that Frankie is connected and doesn't pay taxes, especially Enfield town taxes. The bar/restaurant got its name as everytime Frankie needed extra cash or renovation, the restaurant would burn down for more insurance fraud. Frankie also owned sewage pumping/removal business and did not want to bother have the proper waste facilities so he would drive his trucks on conservation land and then run the sewage out of the truck polluting aquifers and sewage would bubble up in neighborhoods. Frankie was rewarded for his behavior by getting multi-million dollar bond public work projects.

Enfield Police Officers in Connecticut go out collecting overdue library fines and go after anyone who complains about organized crime or the official corruption going on so openly.

DCF allegedly use false allegations and false statements to take kids away, ruin people, to enforce drug turf and do organized crime biddings.

What goes on in a Town Hall with the Connecticut Blue Blood elite, goes on the same way from the very top of Connecticut State Government, all 3 branches.

If you don't have a grandfather buried in the local cemetery and if you do not know who is who, you can quickly become toast having a business that is competition with the "in crowd" or if you get mouthy about Organized Crime or Official Corruption.

Connecticut is that bad and needs to be cleaned up.

-Steven G. Erickson a.k.a. Blogger Vikingas

My email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

Click Here for my beef.

Click Here for what is the Organized Crime, who is who, and where are we today, book. Keep track of the names from the 70s and 80s, and fast forward to know. They are stilling doing the same crimes and scams, only worse.

Click Here for text of my Nov. 30, 2006, letter to the Washington DC FBI

Saturday, December 09, 2006

From Injusticebusters.com:

Click Here to go to webpage at injusticebusters.com

Click Here for list of other stories

Click Here for post with YouTube Videos. I, Steven G. Erickson, speak in front of the Connecticut Judiciary Reform Committee in one of the videos.

(note www.freespeech.com no longer has older posts and might have been shut down, links are no longer good)
For more about Steve Erickson's story, go to Free Speech

Steve Erickson

Whistleblower goes to Prison

August 25, 2003

An open letter to Stafford Springs, Connecticut asking why young and old criminals are rewarded and honest property/business owners are punished.

I was a successful bidder at a CT HUD auction in '94, buying a single family house on Brown Ave Ext, previously known as 'Cat Alley' in older town records and not because there were 'cats' in an alley. Moving into what was one of America's first Spa/Resorts (only in heyday which lasted until early 1900's) and did not know what I was getting into and how my life would be adversely impacted.

I had only owned the house for a matter of a week or so, when I discovered my mail opened with a child's writing with threats to leave town and a separate incident on coming home to a pry bar stuck in the door. I called Troop C State Police in Stafford Springs, the responding officer told me it was too bad I bought property in a crime/drug area, that there was nothing he was willing to do or investigate, and if it was youths, the police did not have time to deal with youth crime.

I joined the Crime Watch. The woman who started the Crime Watch could not even walk outside with her baby, battling teens that would swear at her. These teens would openly drink, sell drugs, smoke cigarettes. The ones I became aware of would openly vandalize houses, break into houses, sell stolen items, sell drugs from drive thru style/open air drug markets in Stafford.

Hold ups, break-ins, muggings went somewhat investigated, although most downtown residents knew the names of perpetrators, but most of them knew they were wasting their time reporting these individuals to police and would cause the teens and criminals to retaliate against the 'cop caller' and police would also become hostile to the caller. A couple that was part of the start of the Crime Watch got sick of the 24 drug market and teens wilding, could not get police to remedy the situation, just let the bank foreclose on their house to escape Stafford Springs, Connecticut, and the rampant teen, drug, and crime problem.

My wife fell down the stairs at our home as she had not drank enough fluids and was sick. I called for an ambulance. I was known to police from being vocal at crime watch meetings and they had become hostile to me. When an ambulance arrived with police, I tried to walk over to my wife to try to cover her up as she was exposed when she was on a stretcher and a Stafford police officer slammed me into my house and told me that they were going to arrest me as they thought I may have pushed my wife down the stairs. Rasa was a former Lingerie model I had met while in Europe and told police that I was not near her, so the officer could not concoct anything then.

In '95, we finally took our honeymoon in Hawaii, and took a month vacation to her native Lithuania, and then to Poland, Latvia, and Estonia for a month. After coming home I continued my rounds downtown as part of the crime watch. A 14 year old, Amanda F, propositioned me for sex for money which I reported. I stumbled on Peter P. and a powdered cocaine drug deal. Peter P. called me an undercover cop and told me to leave the area. I did not and Peter (6'3 or so, possibly 280 lbs, I was 175lbs, 5'9) picked me up by the neck, pummeled me, and tried to bite my ear off (blood trickled all the way down to my underwear). Peter took off from the scene after I dialed 911 as his friend told 'Pete' that he was holding drugs and the police soon would be there.

Pete's friend told police they did not see anything. I persisted calling police worrying I may have contracted a disease from the human bite from the drug dealer. Police relented and took me to all the bars in town where I found Pete. I then was arrested at my house in front of my wife six weeks later, as Peter P.'s friends who had previously told police they did not see anything and did not know my assailant, wrote statements saying I had attacked their friend without provocation and he is in fear of me.

I told the prosecutor my account and was told it was not whether I was guilty or innocent there was enough on her plate to collect a fine. I went to the Stafford LT that I had given information to. He told me I had interfered with a drug investigation and the police were looking to confiscate a bar and a house. The officer told me I was not allowed downtown unless I did drugs. The LT called the prosecutor to get my charges dropped, thinking I would now keep my mouth shut and stay out of the downtown in which I lived.

My wife told me I lacked good judgment locating us to Stafford, and we later divorced. I recovered from the break up in Paris, then bought a 2 family house in Somersville, CT, and the 3 and 4 family houses that were boarded up, next to my former single family house in Stafford Springs, Connecticut in Summer '98.

I had trouble getting teens and drug dealers to stay off my Stafford property as they told me they were there first and continued to have drug and alcohol parties breaking into my properties. 'Jaybone' D. pulled a gun on my and chased me into my house when I told him to not sell drugs off my yard. Jaybone would have drug/alcohol/sex parties with underage girls at his Brown Ave Ext apartment. John T. slammed my head into my house when I asked him not to sell drugs off my yard. As far as I know police did not do anything about either situation.

I started renting out the 9 apartments as I fixed them up. Stafford Police and Connecticut State Police would refuse to do anything when my property was destroyed, broken into, when I was attacked and threatened, when teens and tenants fought, had out of control drug/alcohol parties, sold drugs and stolen items to no avail. Police told me that they did not serve downtown property owners, especially landlords.

I got fed up and started writing letters to the editor describing the rampant drugs and crime in Stafford Springs and the lack of police help. I proposed civilian oversight of police to legislators. I wrote Bush September 15, 2001, about the teens drinking/fighting/selling drugs off my front yard all hours, how frauds flourished, and how all this hurt small downtown business and property investors. I got a response from that letter from the SBA and HUD. I had finally gotten all the apartments rented and had only one problem tenant I was in the process of evicting. I finally felt I turned the corner as I was finally having money coming in after years of hard work. I was happy that I had cleaned up my little corner of the world and had with my own efforts stemmed the tide of the drug trade myself on my end of the main drag of Stafford. I would own about $500,000 in real estate and could retire on the $6500 gross monthly rents in as little as 12 years when the mortgages were paid off.

Stafford Officers and Connecticut State Police began to tell me I was to leave town. An alleged police informant, Brian C., began to harass and threaten me. I would have to get to my vehicle quickly as he would chase me to my back door. He disturbed my neighbors after midnight banging on my door telling me he would cut my penis off if he caught me outside.

10-11-01, Brian C, told my tenant Don L. that he would not have a landlord as he (Brian C) was going to kill me when I got home. Brian C. left me a voicemail at 1PM telling me he would 'hurt' me when I got home. Brian C. left a threatening message on tenant, Sue J's answering machine. Brian C finally caught me on my yard at almost midnight. I had worked a double shift and was too tired to notice him when he beat me severely from behind demanding money or he said he would kill me.

I pepper sprayed Brian C. and police were right there to arrest me and refused to take my complaint against Brian C. The arresting officers committed perjury at trial and I was sent to prison losing everything. Police had allowed Brian C to harass, threaten, and attack me all the way up to trial. From my personal experience I can say hard work and property investment is punished with prison and being run out of Connecticut, and teen delinquency, alcoholism, vandalism, drug use, and their older criminal career parasites are also welcome and encouraged in Stafford Springs. I have lost my family, pets, and everything I have ever worked and saved for.

I was treated with the maximum harshness by the legal system after being declared the victim of a robbery/beating on my own property. I think the downtown drug and crime problem is the fault of the police and policy makers. Crime cannot be curbed by targeting the wallets and purses of honest taxpayers while almost ignoring criminal activity.

Steven G. Erickson

Reprinted by permission of the author from freespeech.com



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Click Here for post on Connecticut State Police Misconduct. The "100 Club" is where officers make up stories and arrest as many citizens as possible for DUI and DWI, guilty or not.

Click Here for my Oct. 2, 2003 Letter to the former Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland

Click Here for story and pictures of a Stafford Springs Connecticut drug dealer using his illegal gun to shoot a pig in the head in a downtown area.

Click Here for the Donald Christmas Story. Donald Christmas is also a landlord that got mouth about police, prosecutorial, judicial, and attorney misconduct. Donny proposed Civilian Oversight of Police and was also openly threatened with police arresting him and falsely imprisoning him, at a public meeting! Don Christmas was attacked by an Enfield Police Officer's 16 year old prostitute girlfriend and only Donny faced a year and a half in prison, no deals. Do you see a pattern?

Click Here for my Nov. 2003 letter to Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal

Click Here for my open letter to Connecticut Supreme Court Justice William Sullivan. If Sullivan was aware of judges committing felonies, is he also guilty of felonies for not reporting the bad behavior to the proper authorities? If a judge is acting as an individual breaking the law, not a judicial officer, shouldn't he or she be arrested and face a trial? Should Judicial Immunity be abolished?

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Did taxpayers pay this woman, Barbara D. Sattal, to date me and try and set me up for false arrest and imprisonment? Would she have set me up for a DUI and planted drugs on me? Would police have beaten me up and then charged me with assault on them? Well, we may never know. For the post on Barbara Sattal, click here

Barbara D. Sattal?

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.
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Is this Barbara D. Sattal with a birth date of May 21, 1960 or 1954, she has used various birth years? She is probably now 52.

She has frequented Stafford Springs, Connecticut, also the towns of Enfield, Windsor Locks CT, West Springfield Massachusetts, various campgrounds, and with anyone that will take her in and pay her bills.

Barbara is allegedly a freelance confidential informant or may do contract work or be employed by the Connecticut State Police and/or Feds.






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The below found here on the web

Jeffrey Scott Hornoff

I hope this letter finds you all safe and well. My name is Jeffrey Scott Hornoff. I am a detective with the Warwick, Rhode Island police department, and I used to be in favor of the death penalty; that is until I was charged, tried and convicted of first degree murder.

If Rhode Island had the death penalty I'd have been on it. Instead I was sentenced to life in prison. After six years, four months and eighteen days (on November 6, 2002) I was freed when the one responsible, filled with remorse and hauntings, came forward and confessed.

Having experienced both sides of the fence, I now have a new path. I intend to speak out about our judicial system and how innocent people are wrongfully imprisoned every day. I hope to help at least one other innocent see freedom. Perhaps I can do the most good at law/journalism schools and police academies, and other organizations, educating and informing future police officers, prosecutors and judges, but I also feel the need to inform everyone of just how tenuous our freedoms are. If it could happen to me- a white, upper-middle class, 40-year-old cop- it can happen to you. If you're interested in my speaking with your organization please contact me. Take care, ~Scott Hornoff

April, 2003: How are you? I'm doing okay. I just wanted to let you know that Warwick Mayor Scott Avedesian has decided that I am not entitled to my backpay, benefits or pension. I'm stunned. I had been told that he was fair, compassionate and reasonable; and I was only asking for my backpay and pension, not even seeking compensation for legal fees, the loss of my and my Mom's homes and more. I guess my trials aren't over. I'd really appreciate it if you and those in your organization would consider writing letters to the mayor and to the local media (The Warwick Beacon and The Providence Journal). I thought my trials were over.
Still Fighting,
Scott Hornoff


Below are some of the news reports regarding the Hornoff case. To set the record straight, Scott Hornoff would like people to know:

  • Vicky was not my mistress
  • The 'affair' lasted about 2 weeks
  • I didn't deny knowing Vicky; I initially denied being intimate with her because my interview/interrogation was being tape recorded. I admitted to it in my pre-polygraph interview, within an hour. See my press conference statement.
  • Todd Barry's name and number were on Vicky's Rolodex, siezed and tagged as evidence.
  • The Associated Press story is way off. I didn't change my story several times. And I never whimpered-that was RISP Detective Denniston's description. Yeah, I held my head in my hands and stared at the floor in disbelief. Is that the sign of a guilty man? Sheldon Whitehouse merely grasped at my initial denials of intimacies because that's all the State has to justify my wrongful imprisonment.
  • The letter from Vicky to me was found in a sealed envelope.
  • The Warwick Police did not attempt to protect me. They were simply incompetent. The Warwick Police were put on trial. ~Scott

Jeffrey Scott Hornoff's Conviction of Murdering His Former Mistress Is Exposed As A Sham When The Real Killer Confesses

By Hans Sherrer For Justice Denied Magazine (12-17-02)

Jeffrey Scott Hornoff's 1996 conviction of murdering a women he had an affair with was based solely on specious circumstantial evidence that made him appear guilty. Namely, in an effort to conceal the affair from his wife he initially lied to police about knowing the murdered woman, After serving 6-1/2 years of a life sentence, he was freed five days after the real killer confessed on November 1, 2002.

In the summer of 1989, 27-year-old Warwick, Rhode Island police officer Jeffrey Scott Hornoff began an affair with 29-year-old Victoria Cushman. Married with an infant child, Hornoff decided after a few months to break it off with her. She didn't take kindly to his decision, since she took their relationship much more seriously than he did. She had even told several people at the sporting goods store where she worked that she thought he was going to leave his wife for her. On August 11, 1989, two days after telling co-workers that Hornoff wanted to end the affair, Victoria Cushman didn't show up for work. Several of them went to her apartment and found her lying in a pool of blood. She had been bludgeoned to death with a 17-pound fire extinguisher that was found near her.

Suspicion that Hornoff was her killer was fueled when an unmailed letter to him was found in her apartment. In the letter she refused to accept he was ending their romance and demanded that he leave his wife. Hornoff cemented the appearance of his guilt when in an effort to conceal the affair from his wife, he denied knowing Victoria Cushman when police ­ who knew about the letter - first questioned him about her death.

However, the appearance of his guilt was counteracted by his seemingly rock solid alibi of being at a party with his wife and friends on the night of Victoria Cushman's murder.

Since there was no physical evidence of any kind or any witnesses linking him to the murder, and the Rhode Island State Patrol had to take over the murder investigation when fellow members of the Warwick Police Department were accused of interfering with the investigation, Jeffrey Scott Hornoff wasn't charged with Victoria Cushman's murder until more than five years after her death. However, he had been painted with a black brush for so long, that as Warwick City Councilman Carlo Pisturo said recently, "By then it was almost common knowledge that Scott had killed the girl. All indications were that he was guilty and that the cops had covered for him."

Hornoff's ace in the hole at his trial was his alibi of being at a party with many other people when Victoria Cushman was murdered. The prosecution, however, casually brushed that aside. It claimed he slipped away, murdered her, and returned to the party without anyone noticing his absence or any indication from his clothing that one would expect to be visible if he had just committed a brutal and messy murder with a fire extinguisher. The unmailed threatening letter was presented as circumstantial evidence of Hornoff's motive, and his initial denials of knowing her was presented as circumstantial evidence that he tried to cover up murdering her.

After the jury bought the prosecutor's argument and convicted Jeffrey Scott Hornoff of murder without any proof he was guilty, he professed his innocence at his sentencing. He told the packed courtroom, "Am I guilty of something? Yes I am. I broke my sacred wedding vows, and for that I will never forgive myself."

Sentenced to life in prison, the Rhode Island Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Hornoff's arguments when it upheld his conviction in 1999. At that point all indications were that he would be spending the rest of his life in prison branded as a heinous and vicious murderer. However, fate intervened on his behalf when on Friday, November 1, 2002, 45 year old carpenter Todd Barry walked into the office of the Rhode Island Attorney General and confessed to murdering Victoria Cushman. Barry indicated he was consumed with guilt over an innocent man spending his life in prison for something Barry had done.

After the A.G.'s office spent the weekend verifying that Barry's confession coincided with the known evidence and facts of the case, he was charged on Monday, November 4th with her murder. The degree to which Victoria Cushman's murder was inadequately investigated is indicated by the fact that although Barry lived near her and had dated her, he was never considered a suspect and had never even been questioned about her murder. Todd Barry was home free once law enforcement officials locked onto Hornoff as her killer. At that point they became tunnel blind to clues leading to anyone else and all meaningful investigation into her murder ended. Although they had a friendship with Victoria Cushman in common, there is no evidence that Barry or Hornoff had ever met or knew of each other.


Jeffrey Scott Hornoff leaves the Providence County Courthouse a free man on November 6, 2002 after spending 6-1/2 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit

Jeffrey Scott Hornoff walked out of the Providence County Courthouse a free man on November 6th, five days after Todd Barry confessed to Victory Cushman's murder. His release on bail pending further proceedings was ordered by the same judge that had presided over his trial and assuming his guilt, had sentenced him to spend the rest of his life in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Hornoff's claim of innocence had fallen on the deaf ears and to the blind eyes of everyone, including the judge, who chose to substitute the appearance of his guilt for any proof that he actually was.

Although Barry's confession is what led to Hornoff's release, concerned people had been publicizing his nearly self-evident innocence for some time. The group truthinjustice.org, for example, explained on its website that the case against him was based on "innuendoes and speculation. There were no fingerprints, no blood evidence, no DNA matches, no witnesses, and no evidence."

Rhode Island Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse tried to deflect attention away from the failure of the police to adequately investigate Victoria Cushman's murder and the failure of the prosecutors to demand evidence Jeffrey Scott Hornoff was guilty before prosecuting him. Whitehouse used the same sort of hollow sophistry and disregard for the truth that led to Hornoff's false conviction when he denied investigators and prosecutors "did anything improper or wrong." Although Hornoff was the victim of a horrible wrong by law enforcement officials and judges that obliterated his life, Whitehouse blamed him for his wrongful prosecution, conviction and imprisonment by saying he shouldn't have made the sort of "misstatements" to police typical of someone "who is trying to hide something." Yet it was soon made plain to police after they first questioned Hornoff in 1989 that he was trying to hide something: his illicit affair with Victoria Cushman from his wife. For initially lying to police about that indiscretion he paid the heavy price of being tormented and punished for over thirteen years: the seven years he spent as a suspect and accused from her 1989 murder to his 1996 conviction, and the six and a half years he spent in Rhode Island's maximum-security prison falsely branded as her killer.

The horrific travesty perpetrated on Jeffrey Scott Hornoff by the police, the prosecutors, and the trial and appellate court judges involved in his case is not lessened by the sophomoric effort of Rhode Island officials to cover up for their blundering incompetence and callousness. All he can now do is to rebuild his life from the ashes of the atomic bomb dropped on it from his purely coincidental choice of having an affair with the woman murdered by Todd Barry. In a particularly cruel twist of fate, the wife he had tried to protect from knowing about his affair with Victoria Cushman by lying to the police, divorced him while he was in prison. It was that lie told to try to preserve his marriage that prosecutors used to destroy his credibility and falsely paint him as a heinous murderer. So telling that lie intended to protect what A.G. Whitehouse called the "small secret" of his affair, is what he spent over six years in prison for, not her murder.

When released from custody on November 6th Jeffrey Scott Hornoff literally had nothing but the clothes on his back. His home, his wife, his career, his possessions - it was all gone. Five weeks later, on December 11, 2002, about 150 people turned out for a fundraising dinner in Warwick, Rhode Island to help him get back on his feet financially. Over $5,300 was raised and his three sons, 13, 11 and 6, who now have their father back, attended.

Sources: Man To Be Freed On Murder Rap, Douglas Hadden, Pawtucket Times, November 5, 2002. Convicted Killer Freed As Another Man Confesses, Brian Carovillano (AP), Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 23, 2002. Friends Hold Fundraiser for Hornoff, Cathleen F. Crowley, The Providence Journal, December 13, 2002. From Capitol Hill Blue


Guilty? Yes, but not of murder

By The Associated Press, Nov 24, 2002

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- For someone who claimed to be innocent, Jeffrey Scott Hornoff behaved a lot like a guilty man.

In the days, weeks and years after Victoria Cushman was bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher in 1989, Hornoff changed his story several times. Under police questioning, he whimpered, held his head in his hands and stared morosely at the floor.

Now, more than six years into a life sentence for murder, it turns out his only offense was adultery and lying about it to police. The former Warwick police detective's attempts to hide the infidelity were apparently what got him convicted.

None of that, however, became clear until this month, when Todd Barry, a 45-year-old carpenter who was never even a suspect, came forward and confessed to the murder. Investigators said he acted out of guilt.

They gave no motive for the slaying but said Barry and the victim had dated.

"It's an utter stroke of luck," said Rob Warden, director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law. "We probably don't have more than a dozen examples nationally of cases in which a voluntary confession has led to an exoneration."

He added, "If this had happened in another state that had the death penalty, Hornoff would almost certainly be dead."

Two days after Barry was charged with murder, a judge set Hornoff free.

"Scott Hornoff had small secrets that he wanted to protect," said Atty. Gen. Sheldon Whitehouse. "Protecting those small secrets made him look like he was protecting the big secret that he had murdered Victoria Cushman."

Hornoff, a 40-year-old father of three, has declined all interview requests until his case has been dismissed, which could happen Dec. 6.

Hornoff and Cushman met in 1989 while she was working at a sporting goods store where Hornoff, a member of the Warwick police diving team, bought his scuba gear. He was married and had a baby. He and Cushman began sleeping together that summer.

Cushman, 29, told co-workers she thought Hornoff would leave his wife for her. Later that summer, Hornoff apparently told Cushman he was breaking it off with her. A co-worker of Cushman's testified that Cushman was surprised and angry.

Two days later, Cushman failed to show up for a work, and she was found bludgeoned to death in her apartment. The weapon, a 17-pound fire extinguisher, was found nearby. Detectives also found a letter she had written to Hornoff in which she refused to break off their affair and insisted he leave his wife.

Lacking any blood, fingerprints or other forensic evidence linking Hornoff to the crime, prosecutors seized on the letter.

There was also Hornoff's behavior. In the hours after Cushman's body was discovered, he gave conflicting accounts of his relationship with Cushman, even once denying that he knew her. His alibi differed from what his wife and brother told investigators.

Tangle of truth, lies

"The criminal justice system is simply unforgiving when people do things that are quite natural," Warden said. "When somebody asks if you're having an affair, it's quite natural to lie. Then you're a liar. When you start telling the truth, you're changing your story. That's two strikes as far as a jury's concerned."

The Warwick Police Department's handling of the case probably didn't help. In their zeal to protect Hornoff, his fellow officers may have made him look more guilty, Whitehouse said. Evidence was lost or misplaced.

Police also gave him a polygraph and said he passed; investigators later said the test violated every rule for conducting such procedures.

The state police eventually took over the case and, in 1994, more than five years after the slaying, Hornoff was charged with murder.

"By then it was almost like common knowledge that Scott had killed the girl," said City Councilman Carlo Pisaturo Jr., who pushed for an independent investigation of the department's handling of the case. "All indications were that he was guilty and that the cops had covered for him."

Colleagues caught in scandal

Warwick Police Chief Wesley Blanchard and another high-ranking officer resigned amid allegations that they aided in a cover-up.

At trial, prosecutors argued that Hornoff killed Cushman to keep his wife, Rhonda, from learning about the affair. They said he left a party that night, went to Cushman's apartment to kill her and then returned. Partygoers testified he seemed dazed and out of breath.

His attorney, Joel Chase, argued that Cushman was killed by a burglar she had startled.

Hornoff and his wife were divorced a few years ago. At his sentencing, Hornoff professed his innocence.

"Am I guilty of something?" he said. "Yes, I am. I broke my sacred wedding vows and for that I will never forgive myself."

© Copyright 2003 Capitol Hill Blue

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