Legal Writes

Regionalism Embraced — For Stopping Dirt Bikes

by | Oct 16, 2023 1:08 pm | Comments (30)

Contribured photo

Chief Jacobson (center): "The Greater New Haven area will not put up with this activity."

City police have seized 33 dirt bikes and ATVs so far this year — and expect to ramp that number up and up, and stop future illegal street takeovers altogether, with the help of fellow cops from West Haven to North Haven to Woodbridge to Guilford.

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1 Year Later, Unsolved Stabbing Death's Pain Remains

by | Oct 11, 2023 3:43 pm | Comments (2)

Thomas Breen photos

Police have put out a $25K reward for information that leads to the arrest of whoever killed Nico Saraceni (pictured).

Thomas Breen photos

A poetry collage memorial put together by Nico's sister for his funeral.

One year after somebody fatally stabbed Nico Saraceni outside of his Whalley Avenue apartment, city police and the family of the late 29-year-old Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) student are still looking for answers.

About who committed such a tragic act of apparently random violence. About why a young artist who loved the poetry of William Ernest Henley and the films of David Lynch and the pizza of Frank Pepe’s was taken from them so soon and so senselessly.

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Ex-Patients Sue Yale Over Fentanyl Diversion At Fertility Clinic

by | Oct 10, 2023 5:03 pm | Comments (0)

Seven former patients at a Yale fertility clinic have launched a new lawsuit against the university — in the latest turn in a high-profile scandal involving fentanyl theft and excruciatingly painful procedures for patients who were told they were getting painkillers, but wound up being operated on sober.

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Ex-Yale Chief Tapped As Next State Public Safety Commissioner

by | Oct 4, 2023 2:41 pm | Comments (8)

Newly appointed state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner to-be Ronnell Higgins.

Gov. Ned Lamont has nominated former Yale Police Chief Ronnell Higgins to serve as the state’s next top public safety official — describing him as the right man to take on this job” and get to the bottom of a roiling state police ticketing scandal.

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Opinion: Where Did All The Cops Go?

by and | Oct 3, 2023 12:44 pm | Comments (72)

Christopher Peak file photo

Former Police Chief Anthony Campbell (right) with recruits at the academy in 2018.

Over the past year, the New Haven Police Department has worked in earnest to re-establish community policing, dismantle bias in its policies and practices, and hold itself accountable for mistakes. At the same time, one of the most frequent complaints we receive as Alders is: we called the police and it took forever for them to come.

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Awaiting Appeal, Maleek Jones Walks Free

by | Sep 28, 2023 7:31 pm | Comments (7)

Laura Glesby photo

Maleek Jones hugs his mom, Denise Jones, outside federal courthouse.

After nearly three decades behind bars for a now-overturned murder conviction, Maleek Jones found a first taste of freedom in a cheese pizza slice from Modern — a taste better than any other pizza from the last 30 years,” he said.

He took his first steps out of incarceration on Thursday, as the state appeals a judge’s decision that he was wrongfully imprisoned for all those years.

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Sliver Lot Sale To City Clerk Advances

by | Sep 28, 2023 4:54 pm | Comments (39)

Nora Grace-Flood photo

Half of the 18 Mill River St. property to be sold by the city to neighboring landlord Michael Smart.

Paul Bass file photo

City Clerk Smart: Just providing parking for tenant, following sliver lot rules.

Should the standard sale of a small plot of unusable city land to adjacent property owners trigger an ethics review — if one of the potential buyers is a citywide elected official?

Members of two city commissions recently raised that question at two separate public meetings, even as both boards ultimately voted in favor of selling a vacant 1,887 square-foot lot on Mill River Street to a holding company controlled by City/Town Clerk Michael Smart without first consulting the Board of Ethics.

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After Drive-By Shooting, Police Pursuit Paid Off

by | Sep 27, 2023 3:21 pm | Comments (9)

Thomas Breen photo

Officers Tyler Camp and Justin Julianelle: Suspected drive-by shooters fled. With the right conditions on the road, they pursued.

Nine shots had just been fired on a Wednesday afternoon in Fair Haven, and neighbors who called 911 identified the suspects as two men in masks on a three-wheeled motorcycle. 

Which is exactly what and who Officer Justin Julianelle saw as he rushed to Blatchley Avenue and Lombard Street in his cruiser.

As the three-wheeler suspected shooters fled from Fair Haven to Wooster Square to Fair Haven again to the Annex, Julianelle followed — but he didn’t chase.” That’s an important distinction in New Haven these days.

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Bomb Threat Targets Pride Center During Pride Week

by | Sep 23, 2023 4:03 pm | Comments (9)

Thomas Breen photo

New Haven Pride Center's Hope Chávez, Juancarlos Soto, and Laura Boccadoro, after Saturday's bomb threat: "We're not going anywhere."

An emailed bomb threat sent to city police and a New Haven Pride Center employee Saturday afternoon temporarily shuttered a Ninth Square block that was supposed to be hosting a Pride Week-closing celebration — but which had been canceled the day before because of expected inclement weather.

Police searched the LGBTQ+ services nonprofit’s headquarters, found no explosives, and cleared the building, and are now investigating the email threat as a potential hate crime.

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Alders Approve $16M Cox Settlement Plan

by | Sep 19, 2023 9:26 am | Comments (23)

Maya McFadden File Photo

Protesters rally for Cox in June 2022.

New Haven will pay Richard Randy” Cox the largest municipal settlement in a police misconduct case in this country’s history with the help of surplus budget funds — and no new borrowing — after official approval from the Board of Alders for how to cover the uninsured portion of a $45 million agreement.

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Pattis Presses Proud Boys' "Patriotic" Case

by | Sep 15, 2023 9:55 am | Comments (36)

Paul Bass photo

Attorney Norm Pattis at WNHH FM: "You couldn’t hang your dog" on the Jan. 6 gallows.

Norm Pattis convinced a judge to cut in half the prison terms the federal government wanted two Proud Boys leaders to serve on seditious conspiracy charges for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol. The New Haven criminal defense attorney has now filed an appeal to have them cleared of the charges altogether. Too much is at stake for our democracy, Pattis argued — for the ability of Americans to freely express their views challenging the government.

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Ocean Landlord Denied Accelerated Rehab

by | Sep 13, 2023 2:30 pm | Comments (13)

Nora Grace-Flood photo

Ocean's Shmuel Aizenberg and attorney Ian Gottlieb in court Tuesday.

A state judge turned down a megalandlord’s request to have a potential criminal record scrubbed clean — after determining that the head of Ocean Management did not qualify for accelerated rehabilitation” because he is likely to get in trouble again and end up back in housing court.

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Loud Speaker Fines Hiked

by | Sep 11, 2023 12:39 pm | Comments (21)

City of New Haven photos

Speakers subject to the ordinance amendment.

Drivers blasting music too loudly from pricey speakers can officially face $1,000 fines — and the confiscation of their audio equipment — now that the Board of Alders has unanimously passed an amendment to the city’s noise ordinance.

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Ocean Rescinds Eviction Notices After Union Pushback

by | Sep 8, 2023 3:29 pm | Comments (7)

Thomas Breen file photo

At a recent protest against Ocean's Blake St. eviction filings.

A megalandlord has walked back on threats to evict 16 tenants and agreed to negotiate on lease security, rent stability and living conditions — after members of the city’s first legally recognized tenants union used public and legal pressure to hang on to their homes.

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Candidates Differ On Tax-Fairness Challenge

by | Sep 8, 2023 9:59 am | Comments (26)

Thomas Breen photo

A view inside the Church of Scientology-owned 949 Whalley.

A rundown, tax-exempt former department store that has been owned by the Church of Scientology for 20 years crept across ward lines to inspire a debate among Lower Westville Democratic alder candidates about eminent domain, lawsuit PTSD,” and what on earth the city should do with recalcitrant land-banking property owners.

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Alder Fled Crash Scene

by | Sep 7, 2023 5:06 pm | Comments (56)

NextDoor photos of car that got hit.

(Updated with further comments from Alder Sal DeCola) One evening in late February, Morris Cove Alder Sal DeCola crashed his car into a neighbor’s parked vehicle on Hervey Street — and then drove away. 

Now, less than a week before DeCola faces a political challenger in the Democratic primary, the incident has resurfaced on social media and police are investigating a new anonymous Internal Affairs complaint alleging that the alder received favorable treatment from neighborhood cops at the time.

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It's Official: Elections Will Follow New Ward Lines

by | Sep 1, 2023 1:00 pm | Comments (8)

Board of Alders map

These redistricted ward boundaries will govern the upcoming elections.

The office of the state’s top election official has decided not to challenge New Haven’s plans to conduct the upcoming primary and general elections according to newly-redistricted ward maps — despite maintaining that alders should have put the new maps into effect at least 90 days before the primary.

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