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Brantley.
(Updated with chief’s comment) The city’s fire chief Thursday afternoon said he will move to terminate city firefighter Aaron Brantley, after a judge found Brantley guilty of attempting to bribe a fire marshal.
Brantley has been on paid leave since Jan. 14, 2013, when he was arrested on two felony charges of attempted bribery. He was accused of trying to pay off two fire department officials, Deputy Fire Marshal Faustino Lopez and Fire Inspector Corey Bellamy, to help him win a discrimination complaint.
Judge Brian Fischer Thursday found Brantley guilty of trying to bribe Lopez and not guilty of trying to bribe Bellamy. Brantley will be sentenced at a later date. The verdict capped a three-day trial in state Superior Court on Church Street, in which Bellamy recanted an earlier accusation against the defendant. Click here and here for coverage by the Register‘s Rich Scinto.
Upon learning of the verdict Thursday, Fire Chief Allyn Wright said he will recommend to the fire commission that it fire Brantley because he was convicted of a class C felony. He said the fire commission will meet “very shortly” to take up the matter.
In the meantime, Brantley will be placed on unpaid leave, according to mayoral spokesman Laurence Grotheer.
“It’s a sad day for the New Haven Fire Department,” Wright said.
“This is not a good day for public servants,” agreed Assistant State’s Attorney Stacey Miranda, who prosecuted the case. “Nobody wins here.”
Brantley’s lawyer, Hugh Keefe, said his client decided to waive the right to a jury trial, and instead hear the case before a judge, because “we were under the impression that this case was so weak that, if there was ever a case that the judge would acquit, it was this one.”
That proved to be a risky bet.
The verdict “yet again demonstrates why lawyers should not waive their right to a jury trial,” Keefe said. “If there was ever a case that warranted an across-the-board verdict of not guilty, it was this one.”
Keefe said that “in all probability” his client will appeal.