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William DiBella, the Hartford and Old Saybrook Democrat, will not seek re-election as the chairperson of the MDC when regional water and sewage authority meets this week for its biennial election of officers, Daily Ructions has learned. DiBella’s current stint as chair of the MDC board began in 2002. He also held the job from 1977 to 1981.

The MDC is one of the last outposts of significant public agency patronage for MDC board members and other officials. DiBella, 80, has long been the master of increasing and wielding the agency’s influence. With its diffuse system of appointing commissioners, the MDC answers to no one–and that’s how they like it.

There have been challenges to DiBella’s authority by commissioners but they have not been able to muster the votes to oust DiBella.

DiBella’s departure from the top job would in most organizations be a moment to pass the leadership to a new generation. The MDC being what it is will likely ignore that opportunity and elect East Hartford Democrat Donald Currey to succeed DiBella.

No one will be surprised if DiBella’s departure as chairperson is followed by him seeking a another position at Wednesday’s election of officers, vice chair.

Wednesday’s meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. and will be available to watch on Webex.

Published January 8, 2024.

Quinnipiac University Law professor Sarah French Russell was one of four judicial nominees the Senate returned to President Biden to begin again in 2024, according to law.com. She was nominated for a seat on the Judicial District of Connecticut bench.

Russell had a car crash of an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on November 1st, notable for her failure to recall a letter she signed at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The letter condemned the nation’s justice system and called for the release of most inmates. Russell had neglected to provide the letter to the committee as part of the confirmation process. in post-hearing written responses to the committee, Russell sought to distance herself from the content of that and two other letters by writing that she neither wrote nor edited the missives.

Russell also backed away from a 2018 letter opposing the nomination of then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Russell, who was a federal public defender for a brief time early in her career, may be one of the only federal judicial nominees to include a state small claims court case as one of the ten most significant litigation matters she has handled in her career.

The White House will have to decide if there is any reason to think the Senate will confirm Russell in 2024 if it resubmits her nomination.

Published December 29, 2023.

It is a letter better suited to be sent to Chief Public Defender TaShun Bowden-Lewis rather than aimed at the members of the Public Defenders Services Commission by her lawyer. The December 19th missive from Madsen, Prestley & Parenteau to the Commission reminds members what they know–discrimination is illegal.

“As you are aware, federal and state laws prohibit discrimination based on race and sex, as well as retaliation against employees because they complain about, resist or oppose, discriminatory practices,” the letter states. The letter arrived 18 days after a devastating investigative report found “that Ms. Bowden-Lewis would often bully or marginalize employees who she did not favor or who questioned her in any way. Indeed, on several occasions, we determined that if an employee was viewed as ‘disloyal’ or on her ‘bad side,’ Ms. Bowden-Lewis would take steps to ensure that the employee remained that way.”

All but one of the members of the commissioners resigned in the aftermath of a similar letter from Bowden-Lewis’s lawyer last winter. Those members were alarmed, Daily Ructions has learned, at the unhelpful response they received from the Office of the Attorney General in the immediate aftermath of the Bowden-Lewis attack. The current members were chosen, in part, based on their resolute determination to straighten out the mess at the public defenders agency.

Among its extraordinary accusations, the letter includes one that raises identity politics into the realm of madness. “In March of 2023, this office wrote to the Commission to address the Chief Public Defender’s concerns about discrimination. Then, in August of 2023, the Chief Public Defender expressed questions and concerns to the Commission’s current Chairman regarding the appearances and implications of his actions that accorded heightened status and trust to information that he sought from a white male subordinate employee of the Chief Public Defender instead of the Chief Public Defender herself, or instead of another employee who had more responsibility for the issue and who is an Asian male.”

That chilling sentence reveals that Bowden-Lewis believes the agency’s employees are her employees. They are not. They are state employees with rights and responsibilities that do not emanate from Bowden-Lewis. The wild accusation describes Bowden-Lewis’s vision of a state agency. All information must come from her and every act will be viewed from a poisonous prism of gender and race.

And then the letter takes cover on the disreputable claim of public information reaching the public. This time it was through The Courant’s Ed Mahony. Curiously, after completing a splenetic attack on The Courant, Bowden-Lewis’s lawyer concludes with a request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

Expect the New Year to begin with a reckoning.

Published December 21, 2023.

Introduce someone you know to these cultural gems that fill this special edition of Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others. They will thank you far into the future.

Published December 21, 2023.

Public defenders wishing for some relief for Christmas had their hopes raised with agenda of the Public Defender Commission’s December 19th special meeting. The commission consider only personnel matters. That ominous item will likely be discussed by a commission increasingly dismayed by Chief Public Defender TaShun Bowden-Lewis’s leadership.

The one-item agenda means there will be no time reserved for public participation, which has become an acrimonious curtain raiser for monthly meetings.

Published December 18, 2023.

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Another grim day for the state’s public defender agency. An investigation of complaints by a current employee and a former one paints a troubling picture of life in the Division of Public Defender Services. The investigation, conducted by the Shipman & Goodwin law firm, “revealed serious, specific concerns, consistently stated by several witnesses, pertaining to [Chief Public Defender] TaShun Bowden Lewis’ management style, allocation of resources, and general treatment of fellow employees and Commission members,” Daily Ructions has learned.

The report, commissioned early this year by the Public Defender Services Commission, found in interviews conducted between March 6, 2023 and October 4, 2023, that “Ms. Bowden-Lewis would often bully or marginalize employees who she did not favor or who questioned her in any way.” It continues, “Indeed, on several occasions, we determined that if an employee was viewed as ‘disloyal’ or on her ‘bad side,’ Ms. Bowden-Lewis would take steps to ensure that the employee remained that way.”

Though the report verifies astonishing behavior, it concludes that it did not arise to the level of “discrimination, harassment, or an illegal ‘hostile work environment’ under the applicable Connecticut or federal statues.”

Investigators did determine “that Bowden-Lewis has made decisions about the distribution of resources in various offices at least in part based on perceived loyalty to her, and has denied resources to office heads who questioned Ms. Bowden-Lewis’s decisions.” This conclusion will do the most serious and lasting damage to the reputation of the agency and the confidence of its thousands of indigent clients.

The investigation also concludes that some of Bowden-Lewis’s denial of additional attorneys to several offices that requested them “was also fueled by her desire to save the funding from those positions for the new Public Relations unit that she has pushed to create….”

The December 1st report, provide to the commission 4 days before its December meeting, addresses only two complaints, filed by employees before all but one of the members of the Commission resigned in March and were replaced shortly after by members now serving. The Commission’s current members have endured considerable conflict with Bowden-Lewis.

The Division of Public Defender Services does have a new logo, a top Bowden-Lewis priority.

Updates as events require.

Published December 15, 2023.

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Read and subscribe to Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others, a free Substack newsletter. This week’s guest is national political analyst Chris Cillizza.

Connecticut State Police union leaders sent a message to members this week alerting them to the escalating United States Department of Transportation investigation into thousands of unexplained motor vehicle tickets issued by troopers on patrol shifts. The message, exclusively obtained by Daily Ructions, warns members that the DOT is engaged in a criminal investigation and they “cannot be compelled to cooperate or answer questions.” It may, however, be in a member’s interest to cooperate with investigators and provide answers to questions. What possible reason could a union member have for not sharing information if this all a lot of talk about nothing, as union leaders have seemed to suggest?

Union leadership appears to want to keep close tabs on the investigation and is offering to assist anyone contacted for a DOT investigation interview. Those interviews are likely to begin, according to the message (posted below) in mid-January or early February.

Union members should also be aware that they are under no obligation to inform union leaders if they have been contacted by DOT investigators or, if interviewed, the substance of the meeting. Union members may want to secure their own independent legal representation and remember that a member’s interests may not be the same as union leaders’ interest in the course of a criminal probe.

Here is the message to members:

Yesterday, the Union was informed that some members have been contacted by a USDOT investigator, who is part of the team conducting the federal investigation related to potential fraud involving motor vehicle enforcement activity. As a reminder, this is a criminal investigation and unlike the current administrative investigations being conducted by the employer, you cannot be compelled to cooperate or answer questions.

Regardless, on behalf of President Fedigan and the Executive Committee, we are contacting you to inform you the Union leadership will be voting on the issue on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, and will likely be offering legal representation for these interviews.

Today, I spoke with the chief prosecutor assigned to the investigation and discussed several topics related to the investigation. The interviews are not likely to occur until mid-January or early February 2024. If you have been contacted by a federal investigator and would like to be represented during the investigative interviews, please contact us immediately to discuss your rights and a plan moving forward. Furthermore, next week we will be scheduling individual private (in-person) meetings to discuss your specific case.

If you have any questions related to this message, you may contact me at XXX-XXX-XXXX and/or amatthews@xxx.xxx or President Todd Fedigan at xxx-xxx-xxxx and/or tfedigan@xxx.xxx Please confirm receipt of this message and whether you will be needing legal representation or just want to confidentially discuss concerns.

The Lamont administration is conducting the administrative investigation referred to in the union leadership’s message to members.

Published December 14, 2023.

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Read and subscribe to Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others, a free Substack newsletter. This week’s guest is Connecticut’s own Chris Cillizza, the renown national political analyst.

Even veteran members of the State Police force are agog at K-9 officer Bruce LaChance’s 2023 overtime. The 15-year Trooper First Class has made $282,506 in overtime so far this year. That’s in addition to his projected salary of $106,000, according to the state’s Open Payroll website. LaChance’s total pay this year is $422,040. That’s an increase from last year’s $229,208 in overtime, which was 64% of his total pay of $356,648.

Governor Ned Lamont has had no success getting state police overtime costs under control. The LaChance example also raises urgent safety issues. How can a trooper work that many hours and remain effective?

In a separate development, two high-ranking civilian officials in the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection were suspended from their positions Wednesday. DESPP did not release details. CTInsider.com, which has five reporters on the story, reported the suspensions were unrelated to the continuing investigation into thousands of fake traffic tickets that came to light earlier this year.

Daily Ructions has learned the cause of the suspensions will likely add to the problems the fractious agency’s new commissioner, Ronnell Higgins, who begins his tenure with high hopes that he will be able to solve the accumulating challenges to DESPP’s ability to carry out its responsibilities to the public.

Published December 14, 2023.

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Read and subscribe to Now You Know–The Cultural Lives of Others, a free Substack newsletter. This week’s guest is Connecticut native and national political analyst Chris Cillizza.

Twenty years after his conviction for sexually abusing 9- and 11-year-old girls, Philip Giordano, the former mayor of Waterbury, has lost another round in his attempt to get out of federal prison. Today the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reject Giordano’s appeal of a U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill’s denial of Giordano’s bid for release.

Judge Underhill noted in his 2022 decision that the good works Giordano claimed to be performing in prison included details the 2000 Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate omitted. Giordano, the judge pointed out “had been disciplined for taking money from prisoners in exchange for legal work,” according to a WTNH report.

The appellate court noted in its decision released today noted that Judge Underhill did not abuse his discretion to in denying Giordano’s claim that “severe health concerns, his age, rehabilitation, [and] family circumstances” should compel his release 20 years into his 37-year sentence. Giordano also complained about the length of his sentence.

The Giordano case shocked the state when details of his chilling predatory behavior became public during his 2003 trial. They have lost none of their power.

Published December 13, 2023.

Connecticut Democrat Jahana Hayes was one of only three Democrats to vote to censure her House colleague Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) over a September alarm incident. It has been a hard week for Bowman. On Wednesday, popular Westchester County Executive George Latimer announced he will challenge Bowman for the Democratic nomination in the 16th House District. The contest was quickly dubbed one of the most expensive primary contests of 2024.

House Democrats, according to Axios, cried out “shame, shame” at House members who voted for the Republican measure to censure Bowman. The censure motion arose from Bowman’s admission that he set off a fire alarm in the Cannon Office Building during a September House vote on funding the government.

Hayes may face a rematch with Meriden and Ansonia Republican George Logan. Hayes eked out a 1,800 vote victory in 2022 to win a third term.

Published December 7, 2023.

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