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30 Apr

Hearst CT Newspapers Making Side Deals After Class Action Suit Challenges How Arrest Are Reported

Two well-known Connecticut lawyers are spearheading a class action lawsuit against the dominate news publisher in Fairfield County in a move to get Hearst newspapers to take down online news reports of people who have been arrested but then have the charges waved or dropped. Bill Keller, New York Times columnist and the paper’s former Editor in Chief, wrote on the case yesterday arguing the lawyers, Mark Sherman and Stephan Seeger, are trying to erase history with their novel lawsuit. Keller’s column drove a boat load of comments on the issue from around the country encouraging an interesting debate on how news organization follow and report criminal arrest stories. Publicly, Hearst is fighting the case but I’ve learned the their Connecticut publications are also making private side deals now with people who contact the paper and ask to have their arrest story reflect the final outcome of the case—or the ‘new truth’. That is if they agree to opt-out of Sherman’s class action suit against Hearst.

Hearst hired a top media law lawyer, Cameron Stracher, to defend the suit because Sherman is trying to get a costly libel claim through. The idea is to hold Hearst newspapers accountable for continuing to publish an arrest story online after the person has had the charges dropped through one of the State’s accelerated rehabilitation programs because Connecticut has an ‘erasure law’ that says a person can legally testify they have never been arrested if they complete the AR program. The state believes they are expunging the record so Sherman argues the media should have to also.

“The truth changes in a day. One day my client would have to say she’s been arrested, the day the charges are waived or dropped she can legally state she’s never been arrested. So if a paper keeps an arrest published online and people read the story after the record is expunged are they reading the truth? Is the publisher continuing to print an untruth? New readers see the story, new ads are published next to it, the publisher is still profiting from what isn’t a legal fact anymore,” attorney Mark Sherman told me in an interview this week.

The problem most journalist and editor’s see is the fact that a person WAS arrested and went through some legal proceedings in a court house, which is all a true historical event that is documented and was available to the public. Sherman argues by keeping the story up, Hearst is still making money on a prior news event that is now false. Police blotters typically draw high ad rates because they are often the most read stories for local news publications. The Norwalk Hour rotates out their online arrest stories every 60 days but publications like Hearst (Greenwich Time, Stamford Advocate, CT Post) or AOL/Patch leave them up for a long time and use background key word coding to draw your attention to similar arrest stories.

Sherman’s suit, which is scheduled to be heard this month in Hartford Federal Court, started with a Greenwich mom that works as a nurse who was arrested after the local keystone cops tried to bust her adult sons for dealing pot. It was small amount of pot they found at her house, which with new Marijuana laws in the state would likely only equal an infraction. The State made a deal to waive the charges if she went to a drug class. The problem for the Greenwich mom/nurse is when she looks for jobs employers first see her pot arrest when they Google her name and there are no reports the charges are gone now. Sherman told me he took the case pro-bono because he thinks this is an important issue. He’s also got a local reputation as the go-to lawyer when your teen gets busted for DUI’s, drugs or other misconduct because, if you can afford him, he’s good at making deals to get people into AR programs and thus legally he gets their arrest erased.

Most of my peers in the media I spoke with think Sherman is just being a bully and trying to make court reporter jobs extremely difficult while trying to get some dough from Hearst big pockets. There is also the idea that this suit is trying to ‘control history’ not just erase it. I don’t think an arrest report should be taken down as a news story. But Sherman and Seeger are onto an important issue. Cops and Court reporters need to finish the story–even if that means a lot more work. It’s not a sexy headline to say the Greenwich mom who was busted with her sons for pot actually had the charges dropped but it’s the truth and reporting it is equally as newsworthy as the arrest.

There is another issue here. Arrest reports are often a one side re-write of what the local cops choose to put in a request for warrant report or dole out at their weekly news briefings with reporters. A lot of what you see in a warrant report doesn’t reflect what actually happen– I’ve seen first hand how some Cops lie and make stuff up to get a judge to think their is probable cause. And in the Norwalk, CT court there are judges like Judge Huddock who was known to sign any warrant report put in front of him. Then there is the fact if the arrested person speaks it could be held against them in court so until you get to trial. or see defense motions filed to challenge the arrest, a reporter often only has a story from the view of the cops to print. Unfortunately I have witnessed, while working for Greenwich Time, how editors at Hearst don’t encourage their court reporters to always follow up on the case and report out the ending. And that, I think, is a serious error in journalistic behavior. In France they won’t print the person’s name until they are convicted. In the U.S. military they won’t do perp walks because they actually assume the person is innocent until a trial proves otherwise.

But printing a person’s name who is arrested in this country is perfectly legal and also seen as somewhat of a watchdog deterrent. I think it’s OK to print the accused name and everything you can find out about them as long as the reporter does what they can to follow the story through court motions and update original arrest stories with dropped charges. What is ironic with the Hearst case is they are spending big dollars to defend Sherman’s suit but I’ve learned they are also making side deals with people who contact them and complain about their arrest stories not being updated. Since Sherman filed his lawsuit I have seen copies of releases from Hearst that say the paper will add code to the online story to take the person’s name out of a Google search and update the arrest story with details of how the charges were dropped but the story stays online. Now to make this deal Hearst also makes the complaining person sign a release that they will have no claims in Sherman’s class action suit against them.

When I asked Hearst outside counsel Cameron Stracher about this secret release deal he claimed he didn’t know what was going on. The releases I saw were drawn up by some of Hearst in-house lawyers like Ravi Sitwala. The official quote I was given was, “Cameron Stracher, an attorney for Hearst, says he has no knowledge of whether or not Hearst has entered into or drafted such releases.” Which in my view is basically spin for ‘oh shoot how did she find that out’.

Sherman’s chances are slim of getting his case past Hearst motion to dismiss in Federal court and if he does I’d expect even more media organizations to join in the fight. But what Sherman has accomplished is some accountability at Hearst –considering we now know they are making these private update-the-story deals. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s the right change. Our Fairfield County courts are filled with people being overcharged or wrongly charged. And the Stamford/Norwalk judges easily allow these AR programs to go through which a lot people, even if innocent, take because they can’t afford to fight to charges.

On the flip side, the AR programs are also easily given out to young adults (or 16+ minors) where there is solid evidence of hosting say underage drinking parties or driving while intoxicated which feels like the state isn’t really interested in delivering a punishment for these crimes. Take the case of New Canaan 19-year-old Avery Underwood who was charged with a felony forgery because they cops found a fake CT ID on her when they busted an underage drinking party she hosted where her mom Lori Anderson was found hiding in the closet when the cops came. Sherman, her attorney, got Avery into an AR program and her record was erased after a probation period. But it doesn’t mean the crime didn’t happen and I think it serves a public interest for Avery’s name and address to be reported so other parents in the community can know where underage drinking parties were happening. As a journalist covering this story I would never agree to take it down. I’d been updating the case during the legal proceedings and finished the story by reporting her AR plan but her case remains published online.

What we really need is dominate market publications like Hearst to investigate the cops and the courts instead having their beat reporters build up a favor bank with local cops to get news before another hyper-local news sites like the AOL Patch print it. I’d love to see a Hearst reporter track all the arrest turned into AR programs and print the number of trials the Norwalk or Stamford court actual win v. lose each quarter. Or how about a data analysis story of all the charges that get plead down while people are forced to pay burdensome bonds. Besides me, I’ve seen about one Darien reporter, at a non-Hearst publication, take on his local cops this past year and follow a case where there was serious miss-information in a warrant report resulting in the charges being nullified right before trial. But a few reporters working diligently to report a person’s ‘whole history’ doesn’t make up for Hearst ‘incomplete histories’.

1 Comment
21 Mar

Finance Executive, Kevin Arnone, Involved in NCPD Pickering Criminal Investigation

UPDATE: 5-3-13: The internal affairs investigation by the New Canaan Police into Officer Pickering is complete. The Police Chief issued a press release today saying they turned their investigation findings over to the State’s Attorney. This is a rare move considering they typically finish it, find no fault, and then inform the complaining person of their findings. I see this as move to keep the internal affairs report from being requested via FOI. Additionally the Chief told reporters “The Stamford State’s Attorney will not comment on the status of this investigation so their office should not be contacted”. Which is another way of saying ‘don’t fact check’ us and a very odd/demanding thing to say to journalist.

UPDATE: 3-28-13: The New Canaan Police have responded to my FOI request. In an email last night, Chief Nadriczny said Officer Fred Pickering was put on paid leave February 26th and he is still on paid leave. That means the police responded to Joel Anderson’s complaint three days after it was made but waited to tell the press and the town for another 10 days. It’s still unclear why they waited so long to announce the Pickering investigation. The NC Advertiser has also now written on Pickering’s past interactions with Joel Anderson and his internal affairs investigation from 2011.

Original Story
A wall st. buddy of New Canaan police officer Fred Pickering tried to intimidate a young black man after he vocalized his ill feelings for the veteran officer at a local bar. Kevin M. Arnone, age 51, who lives in a $3 million house in the Silvermine area of New Canaan called Joel Anderson a ‘Nigger’ according to two people on the scene at Tequila Mockingbird. Pickering made headlines earlier in the month when the NCPD admitted they had to put him on leave after another compliant came in about him that involved racial issues.

When I reached Arnone’s wife, Lisa, at their home on 429 Carter Rd in New Canaan and asked about the racial statements her husband allegedly made this afternoon she said I’d have to talk to Kevin about that. Kevin did not return an email request for comment. Mr. Arnone owned a seat on the AMEX exchange and was a principle at Iron Horse Capital LLC. He also owns some real estate holding companies.

To get some insight into who Picerking’s friend Kevin Arnone is, a look at his about section on his facebook page says a lot: “I love myself and don’t care who dislikes me. I love money more than friends..greed is good.”

Joel Anderson, a black man who grew up in New Canaan, and his friend Colin both made police complaints against Arnone and Pickering the night of the incident on Feb 23rd at Tequila Mockingbird. Arnone allegedly also tried to block the young men from walking by him on Forrest street after they were all thrown out of the bar. People on the scene told me it was Pickering’s friend Jason, who Pickering knows through the Hockey program his son plays in, that tried to break up the fight and not Pickering as some of his friends have speculated in comments. Joel Anderson, the complainant, said Pickering put his hands near his neck after Arnone called him a Nigger. The controversy started when Joel had called Pickering a pig when he saw him walk into the bar. Joel asked Pickering why he was touching him and asked him to get his hands off. When Pickering didn’t Joel stood up and allegedly Pickering tossed him into a table according to one witness on the scene. There is also a third witness/friend who was too afraid of Officer Pickering and the NCPD to go with Joel to make a compliant.

Pickering’s attorney Gene Riccio told me this week, “We’ll comment when the time is appropriate.”

Officer Pickering and Joel Anderson have a history that goes back to early 2011 when Anderson first filed a compliant about Picking using racial words and excessive authority during an interview at the New Canaan police headquarters on January 25th, 2011. I’ve obtained a copy of the complaint and the NCPD internal affairs investigation this week via a FOI request. I have also seen requests for warrants reports and the officers internal police notes on the case written after Anderson made his compliant against Pickering.

Anderson and two of his friends were arrested for an alleged robbery over some pot taken from New Canaan resident Matthew Nilla in March 2011. A look inside the case shows why the robbery charges were dropped for one of Anderson’s friends and waived for Anderson after he completed an acceleration rehab program. This meant his record was expunged and a search in Connecticut court records show no arrest since then.

Officer Pickering was involved in interviewing all three boys on January 25th 2011. Pickering’s police notes say he had Officer O’Sullivan tell Joel to come into the station because they were investigating a hit and run. The incident report explains Joel had called the boy driving the car that was rear ended by Nilla and Officer O’Sullivan picked up the boy’s phone to reach Joel. Pickering’s own notes say his plan was to get them all into the station at once in separate rooms to interview so they couldn’t work on a story together. He succeeded in doing that.

The boys thought they were there to talk about Nilla hitting the car they were in and leaving the scene but Pickering turned it into an interrogation because Nilla had said they’d robbed him of the pot and Anderson had even used a knife. Police notes by Pickering show the driver of the car, who was not accused of using the knife on Nilla, was read his Miranda rights but Joel Anderson was not. Pickering’s view was Joel came to the station on his own accord and wasn’t being arrested then so no rights needed to be read. But those are also the same facts of the boy who was driving the car. Joel’s compliant says Pickering wouldn’t let him leave the station until he’d written a statement that was ‘the truth. According to Joel’s compliant Pickering was yelling he’d ‘hang Joel for this’. Joel felt this was racist because he is black and it sounded like a southern 1960′s style lynch interview.

Pickering’s internal police notes also say Joel kept telling the officers he thought they were coming after him for the robbery because he was black. Officer Lopez incident report says nothing about Joel being belligerent during the interview or that he thought the cops were coming after him because of his race. Lopez is a junior officer to Pickering and his testimony in the internal affairs report says he wasn’t in the room with Pickering and Joel the whole time.

Pickering wrote in his incident report about the January 25th police interview “Anderson stated the reason I am here is I’m a fucking dirty Nigger, first you have a dog search us and now you do this.” His report also says Anderson says there was never a knife used in his discussion with Matt Nilla quoting “I do my business with my fists, I don’t need a fucking knife.”
The police incident reports show they never found pot or a Knife on Anderson even though he was charged for robbery with the knife. The NCPD’s strongest evidence came from a warrant to search one of the residences Joel stayed at in Norwalk where they found drug paraphilia, a pipe with residue, empty baggies, and rolling papers.

Joel also said he’d asked to make a call during his Pickering interview and was denied. All three boys have said Pickering was telling them they couldn’t leave till they signed statements. An internal affairs investigation report shows both Pickering and Lopez denied that Joel was being forced to stay in the station and said he never asked for a phone call. It was two cops against one young black man who was there without family or an attorney. The internal affairs report concluded Joel’s compliant was ‘Unfounded‘. But it also said ‘Pickering admits that he did tell Anderson he would ‘hang for this’ and Pickering’s superior officer Captain Leon Krolikowski wrote ” Pickering should not have told Anderson that and should have used better judgment.” Pickering ends up agreeing he should not have stated the ‘hanging’ threat and would not use this term again in a similar situation. But the alleged abuse against Joel didn’t end there.

When Joel Anderson and his two friends were arrested by the NCPD on a Friday in early March, for the alleged pot robbery Pickering investigated in January, they were given an unusually high bail of $250,000 each and couldn’t make it so they had to spend the weekend in the New Canaan jail until their arraignment on Monday. They were put in a cell that had poop in it and moved around to different cells. According to one of the boys on the scene who asked not to be named for fear of police retribution, when Pickering took Joel to the Norwalk court house he dragged Joel to the squad car even though Joel was not resisting the walk. Pickering also allegedly threw Joel up against the car after Joel had made a comment about Pickering’s wife. The bruises were so visible on Joel that when the public defender came to see if they were OK at check in and she took photos of the bruises. Joel was told he could get a copy of them on his release. But no follow-up compliant records I’ve seen show the photos have been used yet in a compliant against Officer Pickering. The Public defenders office in Norwalk would not comment.

All of these interviews that happen at New Canaan police station were after other NCPD officers had been to one of boy’s home to see the damage done to the BMW hit at 40 miles per hour by Nilla. What’s interesting is that Pickering’s police notes show the police dog Zira had been brought to the initial scene. Zira is used to sniff out drugs in cars or people. But in the warrant report for the boys, which accused them of stealing pot, this was never mentioned. It was later confirmed by one of the boys mother, who made a FOI request , on May 10th 2011, for the police dog log, that the dog was there, sniffed the car and Joel, and did not have a positive response. According to emails I have seen, on June 20th Chief Nadriczny finally told the boy’s mother that Officer McFadden had brought the dog Zira to the initial scene “but did not alert to the vehicle so no report was filed.” This evidence was presented to the prosecutor by the boys lawyers.

Even though the internal affairs report found that Pickering did not abuse police conduct with his aggressive style during the Joel Anderson interview, defense lawyers familiar with the case questioned that.

Attorney Allen Williams, from Norwalk, told me in an interview this week, “If the New Canaan Officers think they had evidence of someone committing a crime then they have to take a different tact in interviewing. When what is fact gathering turns into evidence gathering then it’s my views the subject should be cloaked in the rights provided by our constitution. This includes rights to call an attorney or leave a police station.”

The Connecticut State’s attorney criminal investigation into Officer Pickering is continuing while he’s been put on paid leave. I have a FOI request in asking for records that show when Pickering was put on leave and Chief Nadriczny said he looking into if he will give me the records which are required to be provided under FOI laws. The NCPD waited two weeks to tell the media that about the Pickering investigation. People familiar with the case believe the State is looking at Picking for more than the most recent bar fight incident reported by Joel Anderson.

Editors Note: The research for this story was all available via FOI request and interviews with Attorneys involved in the case or subjects who were involved. This is something our local metro reporters who usually follow the courts and cops should be reporting. Police transparency usually doesn’t happen unless the media holds them accountable. If you want to donate ($10-$50) to support this reporting you can via www.paypal.com to teribuhl@gmail.com

11 Comments
8 Mar

New Canaan Police Officer Pickering Put on Leave-State’s Attorney Investigating

On Monday, March 11th, the NCPD honored part of a media FOI request and confirmed the officer on leave is Fred M. Pickering and they are running their own internal investigation on top of the States Criminal Investigation. This was a result of media pressure on the town 1st Selectman to get the cops to follow State FOI Laws about information on public servants put on leave. There are still unanswered questions on who is leading the investigation and why it’s being done by Pickering’ peers instead of an out of town police unit.

Update 3-9-13 11:30am: At least two employees of Tequila Mockingbird have said it was Lt. Fred Pickering who was in involved in the bar fight on February 23rd. Last night I stopped by the police station to see if Pickering was on duty but he wasn’t. The desk officer told me he didn’t know when he’d be back on duty. Pickering’s voicemail doesn’t say he’s on leave but the NCPD Chief also won’t answer emails asking when his senior officer will be returning for work. Attorney Gene Riccio told me he has been hired to represent Pickering and would not comment further on his client’s role in the alleged fight. Pickering has not returned a call for comment.

The 2011 NCPD annual report shows Lt. Pickering is in the top 6 of command for the 45 person force. He stated on the local Patch site once he needs 30 years of service to retire and started the job in May 1987. Pickering and his wife Mary Beth (a soccer coach) live at 129 Gower Rd in New Canaan. The modest 4 bedroom 3.5 bath house, that he bought two years after he started the force, is appraised at near $900,000. Pickering’s published earnings for 2012 is a little over $152k plus he can earn overtime or private service pay at $65 per hour with a four hour minimum. The police have still not told the press if the officer is on paid or unpaid leave although multiple publications including this one have made FOI request to get this information that is a matter of public interest (and paid for with our tax dollars).

The concern here is how did Officer Pickering handle himself while off duty with his friends who allegedly made racial slurs at another patron in Tequila Mockingbird. One witness, Kevin Jones, told me he heard someone called Pickering a ‘Pig’ and then more name calling happen, via Pickering’s crew, and then the altercation happen.

Pickering is the brother of the director of human resources for the town Cheryl Pickering Jones. The family has a history of working in fire, police, nursing services for New Canaan with deep roots tied to town government.

We are still waiting on the town attorney to give a legal opinion on if the NCPD has to honor the press FOI request to release the officer’s name. I first reported yesterday the State’s FOI commission believes they have to release the name of a public servant on leave. If the town attorney, Ira Bloom, denies the information we are seeking under Federal and State FOI laws I will file an appeal / complaint with the State FOI commission and I hope other local publications do the same.

3-9-13 3pm: The New Canaan Advertiser is also reporting Pickering is on leave and quotes sources that say it’s a paid leave. If Pickering is on paid leave, then given that’s funded by taxpayer dollars, the NCPD has to answer our FOI request. The public deserves to know who is running the investigation, who made the decision to put Pickering on paid leave, how long he’s been on it, and I’d like to see a copy of the police union contract that could show if they had to put him on paid leave or if they had an option. We also need confirmation if his weapons and badge have been turned back in while on leave.

3-10-13: Here is some interesting case law history on how Pickering and a few other NCPD handled a controversial DUI arrest in 2004 by a women who was having a reaction to medicine. In 2008 Pickering received the Police Meritorious Duty Award for his work in Domestic Violence cases.

3-12-13: The New Canaan Advertiser is reporting the name of the man accusing Pickering. Joel L. Anderson, of 186 Lakeview Ave, had been arrested by the NCPD in 2011 for allegedly stealing pot (but his arrest record was expunged and their are no convictions against Joel). Anderson’s address at the time of his arrest was in Section 8 Low-Income housing. He and two of his buddies were outed for the alleged pot heist after they reported the guy they might have stole it from had hit their car. It’s kind of a funny story. Sources close to Pickering have told me this is not the first time 24-year-old Anderson has tried to file a complaint against Pickering but I haven’t seen a 2nd complaint. The NAACP has gotten involved at some point in the complaints against Pickering and I have to wonder why Pickering wasn’t investigated by the State’s attorney before if there was a prior complaint?

Original Text
A New Canaan, Conn. police officer was put on leave and is under criminal investigation by the State’s attorney. The NCPD release a statement today that a person complained they were hit by the off-duty officer at a popular local watering hole, Tequila Mockingbird. The complaint said a fight started when a person in the officer’s group started racial slurs. The NCPD is not releasing the name of the officer and said the event happen February 23rd.

Josh Fisher, New Canaan Advertiser Editor in Chief, asked the NCPD Chief Nadriczny if the name would be released via a FOI request. The chief said no until the investigation is complete. The name of the complainant is also not disclosed.

If something sounds fishy here you’re right it is. Why are we just getting word of this on March 8th. If a cop is put on leave that is a matter of public interest, if public coffers are being used to pay him while he is on leave that is a mater of public interest. I spoke with Attorney Valica Harmon at the State’s FOI Commission who said, “There is no basis of fact for the Police to withhold the name of an officer that has been put on leave. That’s a personal decision and separate from the State’s attorney investigation. The public has a right to know if public coffers are being used to pay this person while on leave.”

I emailed and called Chief Nadriczny at 2pm today with a FOI request explaining the above. If he doesn’t respond with a name today the State’s FOI office said I should filed a complaint with the FOI commission.

I have also asked Chief Nadriczny if ANYONE involved in the incident was arrested for breach of peace, disorderly conduct or assault. You know the charges you usually see when there is bar fight by grown men.

At 2:45pm Chief Nadriczny wrote back saying

“Ms. Buhl -This is an ongoing, active criminal investigation and our press release contains the information we will release at this time.”

I also want to know if another town is being called in to run the investigation. Can the NCPD investigating one of their own?

Remember this is the same police unit who was investigated for racial profiling with traffic ticketing writing last year by the CHRO and was also involved in accepting free alarms from New Canaan Alarm company but no one was ever charged with wrong doing or fired.

New Canaan Patch/AOL editor Michael Dinan wrote in comments on his story about the event that the Patch would not allow readers to post comments speculating who the officer is. I find that ironic since AOL/Patch is known to encourage their editors to allow all kinds of speculative comments about people in town to get the page views up.

If you’ve heard who the officer is feel free to comment here and I’ll investigate it. The NCPD is paid with our tax dollars and we have the right to transparent information from them, which we are unfortunately not getting today. Based on the NCPD Chief’s refusal to honor the press FOI request I’ll be filing a complaint.

Here is the NCPD press release from 11:45am on 3-8-13:
NCPD Press Release Dispute Investigation 03-08-13

UPDATE 4:30pm: I spoke with Ira Bloom the town attorney who said he’s looking into if he thinks the NCPD have to release the officers name. The Advertiser also spoke with the town First Selectman who said he asked Bloom to look into it and they’d have an answer on Monday. If they say no I encourage every local publication to file a FOI complaint with the State Commission as they clearly think the NCPD has to comply.

86 Comments
24 Jan

Conflict Exposed: State’s Attorney in Banker Hate Crime Case is also a Muslim

The Stamford State’s Attorney office has some explaining to do as more troubling evidence has come out about how they handled the hate crime case against a former Morgan Stanley banker. Charges were dropped in October against Darien resident William Bryan Jennings who was accused by a New York Muslim cabbie of stabbing him with a pen knife after he tried to kidnap the banker over a cab fare dispute. We’ve now learned ASA Steven G Weiss – the prosecutor on the case – is a converted and practicing Muslim.

David DesRoches over at the Darien Times has a front page story today asking if Weiss choice to use a felony hate crime charge, instead of a misdemeanor assault charge, was motivated by Weiss’s own religion. Connecticut hate crime statistics show less than half a dozen hate crimes have been filed against Muslims in the last five years. The town of Darien had only one prior hate crime filed since the state started to track them.

A records and asset search for Steven G Weiss shows he served as an executive leader for the American Institute for Muslim and Islamic Studies in Fairfield, CT where he also owns a modest 4 bedroom home. (Ironically off Jennings Lane in Fairfield) Weiss who grew up Jewish in Greenwich’s poorer Bryam neighborhood converted to being a Muslim. A few people have told me this had to do with his wife’s background. The Muslim education center where he held office from 05-07 confirmed he practices prayers on his prayer rug.

Weiss, age 61, is a small-sized man who defense lawyers in Fairfield County told me can be volatile emotionally but they still respect his legal work. Work that has now come into question for violations of the Brady law. You see besides a possible religious conflict of interest for Weiss it’s also been confirmed he withheld exculpatory evidence from Jennings defense lawyer for four months. He did this while still trying to get Jennings to accept a plea deal. The Brady law says he needed to share the evidence with enough time before trial. Jennings got it only two weeks before the trial start date so it would be up to Weiss’s superiors to decide if this violated the Brady law.

When you look at the documented reporting DesRoches has done on this bizarre case I don’t see how lower Fairfield County residents aren’t very concerned that Stamford State’s attorney, David Cohen, has problems with judicial ethics on his team.

There is also the issue of shoddy police work by the Darien police explained in Jennings Franks Hearing motion that Darien residents need to pay close attention to. You see Jennings was fired from his million dollar job at Morgan Stanley and now faces the tasked of finding new work while potential employers see, via a simple Google search, headlines describing him as a racist cabbie stabber. All for an alleged crime the Darien police and the State now say never existed because they dropped the charges.

Weiss, a public official paid for by taxpayer, has been hiding under his desk from reporters like DesRoches- refusing to answer questions about how he handled the case and the State’s attorney office has Cohen defending him in quotes to the Darien Times. It’s a clusterfuck they likely want to go away.

While CT law doesn’t allow Jennings to sue a State’s attorney for a bad arrest, incurring high legal fees, and possibly ruining one’s public reputation – all he can really do is file a grievance complaint against him. Which would likely only make a black mark on Weiss’s record but wouldn’t cost him his job or law license.

Jennings stronger action is to sue the wealthy town of Darien for the actions of the local cops. Civil rights attorney Norm Pattis has commented for me in the past that Jennings case is definitely interesting with potential clout. But if Jennings does sue the town, they’d likely settle, then he’s forcing his friends and neighbors to pay for the gross mistake of the local cops. That’s not much of a win.

Another alternative is for Jennings to work with his elected town council to poll Darien taxpayers and get a petition to have the Darien cops who worked on the case fired. The town taxes do pay their salary. If there are other cases where Darien police have filed warrant reports leaving out critical evidence then that’s something the town needs to take a serious look at.

If you are Darien resident or live in a town that has to answer to David Cohen’s Stamford or Norwalk prosecutors this is case you want to pay attention to. A Muslim prosecutor coming up with a Muslim hate crime off a he-said he-said case with circumstantial evidence ,and drops it, just doesn’t sound like justice.

Editor’s Note: The Jennings case hit international headlines from the New York Post to the UK tabloids at the time of Jennings arrest. Even John Dillon at Bloomberg was aggressively covering the story-all blaming the rich white banker off a one sided Darien police report. Now that the case was dropped it’s only the Darien Times who has done the leg work to report out what really happened. It’s a shame Hearst CT Newspapers have ignored the story and never even tried to interview Jennings. That’s likely because they are afraid to ruin their info trading relationship with their local cops and State’s attorney. I am a firm believer if you start a story you’d better try to finish it – luckily DesRoches appears to be that type of reporter. It’s something we need more of in their sister paper the New Canaan Advertiser.

1 Comment
19 Dec

Darien banker Jennings Bad Arrest Leads to Millions of lost Compensation

UPDATE 1-15-13: Darien Times is reporting ASA Weiss with held evidence from Jennings’ defense for months. It appears he did it to try to get Jennings to plea out. The local paper questions the ethics of our Stamford States Attorney office.

Original Text
Today the Wall Street Journal has a story showing how Darien banker William Bryan Jennings got totally screwed over by Morgan Stanley after he was arrested for a hate crime the state of Connecticut later dropped. One of my readers had commented last month in some of the stories I’d written about Jennings that the investment bank he spent two decades with wasn’t going to pay him millions in deferred compensation. I tried to follow-up on that news but it looks like the WSJ beat me to it.

You see most bank executives don’t get their full bonuses when they are awarded each year. The bank usually sets up a 2-3 year deferred stock payout to keep great performers in their job. Jennings was one of those bankers who has now learned bad pr for him equals Morgan Stanley is going to take the opportunity to not fork over millions in pay he previously earned. The Journal says Jennings wasn’t fired until October – a few weeks before all charges were dropped. Morgan Stanley claims they can fire him because his actions hurt the firm even though his job performance isn’t why he’d be fired. Sounds like a totally BS excuses to me. What’s also troubling is the CT assistant States attorney, Weiss, waited until October to drop the charges when he knew in May the cabbie had lied about having the weapon all along — in May Jennings was still employed by Morgan Stanley.

Officials at the firm believe it owes him nothing, citing “clawback” provisions that allow the company to withhold or seize pay from employees who hurt Morgan Stanley, wrote Aaron Lucchetti for the Wall Street Journal

The story was clearly leaked to the WSJ by a public relations person Jennings has hired as he is currently negotiating with Morgan Stanley to get paid. But if negotiations were going well this story wouldn’t have been leaked; so there is strong chance we’ll see Jennings sue the bank over the termination. Of course if he does that he better secure a good settlement figure because no other bank is going to hire him.

As I’ve previously written, CT civil rights lawyers think Jennings has a decent case to sue the town of Darien for the police actions in a wrongful arrest and thus a violation of his civil liberties. And now that we know he also lost a job, that paid millions each year, for a bad arrest what’s holding him back?

UPDATE 12-19-12 5:30pm: Darien Times got Jennings to pick up the phone and he told them ‘Yea my former employer does owe me a lot of money which kind of sucks’ – to see Jennings exact quote go read David DesRoches story

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1 Nov

Justice in Fairfield County? Morgan Stanley Banker Hate Crime Case Had Flaws

William Bryan Jennings, a Morgan Stanley Executive, had to wait nearly nine months before Connecticut admitted they didn’t have the evidence to litigate a hate crime case against the Darien, CT native. Felony charges were brought against the banker in February after a New York cabbie told the Darien police he’d been assaulted by Jennings over a dispute about the price of a cab fare from New York City last winter. The Queens-native cabbie was Muslim, the banker rich & white—a scenario that created an easy target for supervisory assistant state’s attorney Steven Weiss and his boss, David Cohen, to show Main Street they’ll prosecute bad behaving Wall Streeters. Except in this case the banker became the victim.

A review of the request for a warrant, Darien police notes the night of the incident, Jennings signed statement, and a motion challenging the process the local cops and states attorney went through to get to an arrest show significant evidence was left out of the judicial process. Most of the information in Jennings own statement to the Darien police, signed on January 28th, was not in the warrant request filed by Darien Detective Chet Perkowski. Attorney Weiss claimed when he dropped the charges against Jennings it was because the cabbie, Mohamed Ammar, had not been honest about having the weapon, a pen knife, this whole time. A fact Weiss actually learned in May but waited till mid-October to disclose in open court.

The 2 ½ inch pen knife was allegedly used by Jennings to stab the cabbie in his right hand when the cabbie abducted Jennings after he wouldn’t pay the fare because he said it was over the usual rate. Darien’s Captain Komm told me they searched cab the night of the stabbing but never found the knife. In Jennings sworn statement he said he didn’t have the knife and thought the cab driver had it. Detective Perkowski actually mentioned this in his police notes but left this detail out in the warrant report which the judge used to sign for Jennings arrest.

Who had the knife was important because there was a he said-he said debate if the cabbie grabbed the knife out of Jennings hand and caused the cuts to his hand or if Jennings actually used the knife to purposely assault the cabbie.
“I told the driver that I had a knife in my possession and that I expected him to pull his car over and allow me to get out of it at this point. He again refused and I showed him the knife so it was clear to him that I had one in my possession. At no point did I attempt to make contact with the driver (with the knife or otherwise). The driver reached towards my hand in an aggressive manner and attempted to grab the knife from me. I released my grip on the knife and, at this point, I believed he had the knife in his hand,” wrote Jennings in his police statement.

Jennings goes on to state the cabbie actually stopped the taxi in the middle of Post Road (that runs through Darien town center) and got out of the driver side door.
“I feared that he now had my knife and that he had the opportunity and intent to harm me physically so I grabbed my belonging and ran as fast as possible up Leroy Avenue,” wrote Jennings.

These statements were never seen in the warrant report or the multiple news stories about the attack but could be found by any public citizen or journalist if they went to the Stamford court house and request the file on the case – like I did.

Officer Perkowski appeared to want to build a case against Jennings with the logic of Jennings not coming to them first to report the crime so he must be hiding something. Perkowski stated in his warrant report that when he sat in the cab he thought it would have been impossible for the cabbie to reach back through the partition and grab the knife from Jennings. If true that would make Jennings statement not credible. But when Jennings attorney, Gene Riccio, inspected the cab he said it would have been possible. He also stated in a motion to dismiss that State’s attorney Weiss also came to this conclusion. In an interview with Darien Captain Komm he told me attorney Weiss had actually never seen the inside of the cab only photos so there are unanswered questions on if Weiss thought officer Perkowski was mistaken. Weiss has refused to answer reporters’ questions about the case and only made comments in court. Komm told me he thought Weiss stood by the police work in the warrant report yet he dropped the charges?

The level of injury was also miss-stated in the warrant report. Medical records of cabbie Ammar show he only had stitches on the middle part of his right index finger and not his palm. Darien Officer Whyte, the first officer on the scene, wrote in his police notes “the night of the incident Ammar said he was stabbed multiple times in his right hand.” Whyte did note he saw the cabbie’s right hand was bleeding and “had small slice wounds that would have been caused by a sharp object”. Whyte stated the EMTs cleaned and bandaged Ammar’s wounds but he refused further medical treatment. Ammar later told the Darien police he went to New York’s Roosevelt hospital to get treated and needed 6 nylon stiches in his right finger. Medical records show Ammar’s doctor wrote there was no visible tendon or bone and he had full sensation and motor function intact. The cabbie left the hospital with a bill, before insurance, of $1169.52.

Ammar’s wounds were reported as a violent stabbing in the press. A media interpretation Jennings attorney had problems with. Attorney Riccio wrote in his motion to dismiss this June, “Does probable cause to arrest exists where the description of the assault and the injury sustained by Mr. Ammar are not supported by the medical records and photographs of the injury?”

The state’s attorney had used statements the cabbie said Jennings made to get the felony charge for ‘intimidation by bias’. The warrant report shows Ammar telling Darien cops Jennings yelled, “Mother fucker I’m going to kill you, you should go back to your own country.” This was allegedly said after Ammar  overcharged him for the fare and then drove off with Jennings locked in the car when he refused to pay $300—the NY taxi rate chart shows the fare should be $204. Ammar also said Jennings made threatening statements about paying $10,000 in taxes to the town so the cops wouldn’t do anything if Ammar called them. Town records show Jennings actually is assessed to pay $29,852 in taxes on his home.

The problem is Officer Whyte’s police notes, taken at the scene, don’t have a word about hate statements being made by Jennings. Yet those alleged facts, witnessed only by Ammar and Jennings, made it front and center in the warrant report filed weeks later. You see Darien police records show somehow Ammar remembered these hate statement when Detective Perkowski did a follow up interview. Jennings consistently maintained he didn’t say anything like that. Court records show Jennings had no prior disturbance of the peace or hate-like charges filed against him in the past. There is nothing in his FINRA broker check record that shows prior criminal actions.

There is a federal law that mandates States track all reported hate crimes even if it’s only a verbal threat. In 2010 Darien had no assault hate crimes reported but its poorer neighbor city, Norwalk, shows eight were reported. In 2011 Darien had one hate crime based on race filed and Norwalk had five. In 2010 for all of Connecticut only one assault hate crime was reported against a Muslim, 37 were reported against Jewish people. The report filed by Commissioner Ruben Bradford says in 2010 there were 72 hate crimes reported against people (they also track property that is vandalized) of which only 8 were with an injury that needed treatment. In 2011 only 9 out of 82 people were assaulted with an injury that needed treatment. The report shows in both years about 20% of the hate crimes happened on a highway/road/street. Jennings faced up to ten years in jail if convicted of the assault because a hate crime was attached to it. With no weapon and a he-said he-said series of statements why did Stamford’s state attorney go so gung-ho with pursuing these charges against a rich banker? It’s a case with a lot of holes in the State’s attorney’s process of justice that is still answered.

When I asked Darien’s Captain Komm if he ever remembered a hate crime charge in the town, that was headed for trial, during his long tenure on the force he said no. He also said the Darien police asked state’s attorney Weiss if they could charge the cabbie with abduction and he said “no only go after Jennings”. Not surprisingly the State’s Attorney office is mum about how many hate crimes they’ve brought that had to be dropped.

Court filings show attorney Weiss knew since the early summer the cabbie’s statements were not adding up. So why did he wait till the weekend before the October trial was set to start to tell the cops he was going to nullify the charges. Darien PD told me Weiss even spent the state’s money issuing subpoenas for the cops and cabbie to testify at trial. Jennings lawyer filed at least three motions to dismiss which piled on the banker’s attorney cost. Weiss was likely trying to bluff Jennings into taking a plea deal after Judge Provodator ruled their Franks Motion would not go forward and Jennings couldn’t put the cops on the stand before trial to question them about their shoddy police work. But Jennings held to his not guilty plea and even requested a bench trial(judge rules without a jury) to speed up a trial date.

Weiss statement to Judge Provodator that he was not going to try the case because the cabbie mislead him about having the knife reads like bull shit. Jennings attorney Riccio is not talking about what he thinks motivated the charges being dropped and only made statements questioning the media’s pre-trial guilty verdict against his client based on one Darien cops warrant report. Most metro reporters are taught by their editors on day one “the cops lie and the perps lie your job is to find the middle”. But the wide variety of international reporters who covered this case wrote their stories copying other reporter’s work which hardly checked out the facts in the warrant report. Darien Times metro reporter David DesRoches was a rare exception and continued to follow the story with details presented by Jennings attorney that questioned the info in the Darien Police warrant report.

After the charges were dropped the Muslim cabbie cried race again and eluded to feelings that this was a white rich man getting off and an injustice occured. Ammar even said he’d ask the DOJ to follow up and charge Jennings but that isn’t likely to happen. He also told the Darien Times he was considering a civil suit against Jennings but a search in New York and Connecticut court records show nothing has been filed. The person who likely has a viable case to sue civilly is actually Jennings. He can’t sue the state’s attorney but can sue the town of Darien for the cops’ violations of his civil liberties via a false arrest.

Seasoned civil rights lawyer Norm Pattis told me, “It’s hard to build a case proving the police built a case that didn’t get to probable cause but this case sure has unusual facts. It’s troubling to see the State’s attorney use politics in the wheels of justice here.”

“It looks like this was a race to court house steps, whoever reports to cops first becomes the victim, and Ammar did that,” said Pattis. “Civil remedies are definitely worth a look here as it turns out the defendant became the victim.”

Bloomberg reported unnamed people who worked at Morgan Stanley saying Jennings no longer worked there. The investment bank, where he was co-head of U.S. bond underwriting, said at the time of his arrest this February he’d been put on indefinite leave. Jennings isn’t answering questions about where he works now. His $3 million home at 39 Knollwood Lane (4 beds, 5 baths, 6,484 sqft) is still listed in his family’s name so it appears they are still living in Darien. His attorney wouldn’t comment on questions if Jennings wants to sue the town.

So what’s left, Jennings avoids a criminal charges and goes on with his life but every time someone Googles his name the hate crime charge will come up. Attorney Weiss gets off without a solid explanation of how Connecticut dragged this man’s name through the mud and failed to build a viable case. The Darien cops go unchecked unless Jennings files a suit against them. I guess that’s how justice works in Connecticut’s gold coast of Fairfield County.

7 Comments
12 Oct

Will Morgan Stanley Banker Accused of Hate Crime now Sue Darien Police for Bad Arrest?

This story has been updated

The Darien Wall Street executive who was arrested for felony assault and larceny this February appears to have beaten the local cops and Stamford Conn. states attorney in their quest to label a white rich Morgan Stanley banker guilty of hate crimes. News broke this morning that William Bryan Jennings will have 2 class D felonies and 1 class C misdemeanor dropped against him on Monday when the case was scheduled to start its court trial.

Jennings made international headline news this March when the arrest warrant written by detective Chet Perkowski of Darien PD detailed statements made by a New York cabbie born in Egypt saying Jennings tried to stab him in the neck and verbalized ‘hate statements’ at the driver after a dispute about the amount of taxi toll from NYC to Darien. The request for warrant report also said the cabbie took off with Jennings in the car (basically kidnapping him) after he refused to pay a near $300 toll. Jennings was booked and had to post $9,500 to get out of jail but the driver, Mohamed Ammar who lives in Queens, was not charged. It sparked an international media debate around bias, hate crimes and bankers behaving badly. But a legal motion filed this summer by Jennings attorney, Gene Riccio of Gulash & Riccio, showed a series of misstatements and material facts left out of the request for warrant report filed by Officer Perkowski and Lt. Ron Bussell.

I read through the media reports by local papers this June and David DesRoches of community newspaper The Darien Times did an excellent reporting job explaining all the alleged inaccuracies and sloppy police work by the Darien Police. The motion DesRoches reported on is called a request for a Franks Hearing. This is where defendants have the chance to put the cops on the stand, without a jury, and hold a hearing questioning how they got to the information listed in the warrant report. A judge can then rule the warrant ineffective. Franks Hearings are hard to get in the Fairfield County, CT court systems because judges don’t like to put another judge’s decision to sign an arrest warrant on the stand.

DesRoches reported:

Additionally, police stated in the arrest warrant that it would have been “virtually impossible” for Anmar to reach back for the knife that Jennings held, which led to Anmar’s hand being cut. Riccio said that the interior of the taxi was examined by himself and the prosecution and it was learned that reaching back would have been possible. Attempts to contact Steven Weiss, prosecuting attorney, to confirm Riccio’s statement, were unsuccessful.

This “assertion of impossibility was one of the three critical reasons” for the arrest, the motion stated, “along with (Jennings) not calling the police on the night of the incident and his refusal to submit to a polygraph examination…”

Anmar told police he thought Jennings was trying to stab him in the neck and defended himself with his right arm while steering with his left hand. Jennings said Anmar tried to take the knife from him, which cut Anmar’s hand. Det. Perkowski, who has been on the Darien Police force for 24 years, stated in the arrest warrant that his investigation “discredits Jennings’ statement that Anmar reached into the back of the cab while he was driving.”

The motion also shows the cabbie never mentioned racial slurs when he was first interviewed by the Darien police and those statements ‘just happen’ to show up after the officers came back a second time to interview Anmar.

Riccio wrote in his Franks Hearing motion, “In light of this repeated conduct by Det. Perkowski throughout the affidavit… the court was presented with an affidavit that was distorted to present Anmar’s assertions in the most favorable, albeit erroneous, light possible and (Jennings’) position in the least favorable, also erroneous, manner possible. These gross and repeated misrepresentations are diametrically at odds with the legal obligation of (police) in the warrant process.”

Darien police Captain Fred Komm told me in an email today the request for the Franks Hearing was actually denied by the court. This mean Riccio didn’t get to put the cops on the stand and question their actions under oath so a court trial was scheduled to take place next. But clearly the State’s assistant attorney took the evidence Riccio presented to heart because right before the trial was to start he wants to drops the charges.

So what happen? If the case had gone to trial Jennings attorney would still have a chance to put the Darien cops on the stand and try to show the court their flaws in the warrant process. This could have been really embarrassing for the Darien police and the judge who signed the warrant. On top of that if the State lost their case the defendant has an even better chance of suing the town for violations of their civil liberties and recovering the cost of attorneys fees and loss of income due to the faulty arrest. Jennings was the co-head of fixed income at Morgan Stanley – a million-plus dollar job. At the time of his arrest on February 29th the bank put him on leave and today Bloomberg sourced unnamed people at the bank who said he didn’t work there any more. I was not able to confirm if Jennings is really out of Morgan Stanley but if he lost his job because overzealous local cops got him arrested for a crime the State is dropping charges on nearly a year later – well that’s real problem in our local justice system.

The cabbie made press statements he’s outraged the case is being dropped but we have yet to hear from Jennings on if he’s planning to sue the town of Darien for violations of his civil liberties based on the Darien Police actions in obtaining an arrest warrant. I have a freedom of information request in asking if Officer Perkowski has had citizen complaints filed against him before and if he’s had other warrant reports challenged in legal filings.

This case looked like an attempt for local cops in a wealthy enclave of Wall Street to be main street’s hero by get a hate crime criminal charge against a big bad rich banker. But was the banker, Jennings, instead the victim here?

UPDATE 12-19-12: One of my commenters was right. It looks like Morgan Stanley totally screwed Jennings on millions of his deferred compensation. This story reads like Jennings public relations person leaked it to the WSJ – a tactic used because Jennings is negotiating with the bank to pay him or he’ll likely sue.

2 Comments
22 Jun

Greenwich Realtors Use Cops to Try and Silence Blogger Christopher Fountain

Christopher Fountain, a popular and outspoken Greenwich real estate blogger, is being strong armed by the Greenwich Association of Realtors for his writings on the distressed state of local McMansion sales. The GAR went so far as to try to use the local police to scare him off but he’s fighting back with plans to file an anti-trust complaint with the DOJ. And now that the scuffle has gotten national media attention the GAR is ducking in the sand.

I wrote about it for housing publication ml-implode.com. Click here to read how I caught a GAR VP lying about the event.

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