Paul Bass Photo
Forty immigrant-rights activists brought complaints about the arrest of a wage-theft protester to the mayor’s office on Thanksgiving Eve — and refused to leave in what became an extended stand-off.
The protest began outside City Hall shortly after 4 p.m. Members of Unidad Latina en Accion/ New Haven Workers Association gathered to air complaints about the arrest last Friday night of organizer John Lugo outside Goodfellas, a mob-themed restaurant on State Street. The group has been picketing the restaurant for months over allegations of wage theft and harassment of immigrant workers, the subject of a current civil suit. After a patron complained about the noisy protest last Friday, officers arrested Lugo on interfering and disorderly conduct charges. Protesters called the arrests a violation of their First Amendment rights as well as of the city’s commitment to joining them in cracking down on employers who abuse immigrant workers. (Read more about the arrest further, and watch a video of it, further down in the story. Goodfellas has denied the allegations.)
“Let’s go inside to talk to [Mayor] Toni Harp!” Lugo (pictured) exhorted the crowd.
So up the crowd marched upstairs …
… and into the waiting room of Harp’s suite. Officers asked the organizers to turn off the bullhorn. The organizers complied.
But they didn’t keep quiet. “We want to talk to the mayor,” Lugo told mayoral spokesman Laurence Grotheer, who greeted them.
“The mayor is in a meeting. Do you have an appointment?” asked Grotheer (at right in photo). “We live in New Haven,” Lugo responded. To which Grotheer replied, “Everyone in New Haven is welcome to make an appointment.” With two police officers standing quietly nearby inside the office, and another half-dozen outside in the City Hall atrium, that exchange repeated itself with slight variations maybe a dozen more times. Protesters insisted that Harp should come out and tell them she’ll meet with them in the future, or that Grotheer give them a specific time and date for an appointment. Grotheer insisted that she was busy and that “it’s not practical for people to come in without an appointment to interrupt meetings that are taking place.” In between, the two sides argued about whether Police Chief Dean Esserman should have eaten dinner recently at Goodfellas.
“We’re not moving,” declared Claudina Lara.
City Community Services Administrator Martha Okafor entered and tried a different tack. “This is coercion,” she argued. “You cannot coerce a dialogue. If every group comes here and requires the mayor to come out, she could not do her job. She thinks your group is improtant. The reason you are here is coercion by someone else [at Goodfellas].” Now, she argued, the protesters were being coercive. She promised to secure the group an appointment. “I am the CSA,” she said. “I cannot hide. Monday you will hear from me personally.”
The protesters didn’t budge. Several had brought children, like Eliazer Roldero and Josue Miguel, who settled in chairs to play video games.
“Our turkeys are defrosting. So we’re in good shape,” remarked organizer Joseph Foran.
Emily Gallagher spoke up about having worked at Goodfellas from 2005 to 2007. Even back then workers were filing complaints with the state over unpaid wages, including for overtime. Gallagher filed one of the complaints with the state Department of Labor and won her wages in a settlement. Now, she said, she wanted to support current employees in their similar complaints.
“We need to make a decision,” Lugo announced at 5:16 p.m. Should the crowd leave for the next planned event, protesting outside Goodfellas? Or, Lugo asked, “How many want to stay” in the mayor’s office? Most hands shot up for the latter option.
The protest was now officially a sit-in …
… for another 20 minutes. Then Karim Calle announced that Grotheer had just told her the staff had found an opening for the group to meet with Mayor Harp next Wednesday at 10 a.m. The protesters had the victory they could claim to move on to Goodfellas. “I hope to see all of you here,” Calle said. “Do you guys want to go boycott Goodfellas with bullhorns?”
Triumphant, the crowd voted with its feet, marching down the stairs …
… and reassembling on State Street outside the restaurant. Some 30 protesters remained, marching, chanting in call and response while diners slipped through to enter: “Goodfellas!” “Pay your workers!” They also put the cops on notice that they were ready to get arrested again for using the bullhorn. Sgt. David Guliuzza went inside the restaurant, where, he said, the management told him it didn’t plan to lodge a complaint. “Let them peacefully protest,” Guliuzza said he was told. (The manager on duty declined comment to the Independent.)
Lugo, meanwhile, upped the volume, undisturbed by another police supervisor keeping his distance.
“I dare you to call the police again!” Lugo called through the bullhorn toward the restaurant. “We are ready to get arrested again. You are criminals! You are going down!” The protesters remained for another half-hour, then went home. Without anyone getting arrested this time.
An earlier version of this story follows:
Lugo Arrested At Goodfellas Protest
An immigrant-rights organizer is accusing police of backtracking on their commitment to fight wage theft in the wake of his arrest at a protest.
Police arrested the organizer, John Lugo of Unidad Latina en Accion/ New Haven Workers Association, last Friday night on charges of disorderly conduct and interfering with a police officer outside the mob-themed Goodfella steakhouse on State Street.
Accompanied by fellow protesters, Lugo used a bullhorn to urge customers to boycott the restaurant because of accusations that it has harassed and failed to pay its immigrant workers, the subject of a lawsuit filed by Yale law students.
The group has staged weekly sidewalk protests outside Goodfellas since the spring without incident. (Activists also targeted the restaurant in 2011.)
This time officers arrested Lugo after receiving a complaint about the protest.
The group captured the arrest on video, which you can click on above to watch.
“We have been here for five months,” Lugo told the arresting officer. He said he had a right to protest.
“We had people complaining,” Officer Justin Cole responded. “Just as you have the right to protest, they have the right to eat dinner” in quiet.
Police spokesman David Hartman said the complaint came not from Goodfellas management, but from a man who came to eat at the restaurant with his wife.
“Since arriving, [the complainant] had heard the protesters make loud and excessive noise outside,” according to the police report. “The complainant found the use of megaphones to be offensive due to he and his wife not being able to enjoy their evening in peace. The complainant explained that his wife felt uncomfortable exiting 702 State St. due to the protesters standing in front of the exit.”
Hartman said Lugo was charged with interfering for “pulling away” from the officer who tried to question him at the scene. “He pulled away. You don’t have the right to do that,” Hartman said. “You don’t have to talk to them. You don’t have the right to physically pull away. You can not answer anything you want. You do not have the right to leave when you are the subject of the investigation. When the officer grabbed him by the arm, he pulls his arm back and almost strikes a child behind him.”
Hartman said the disorderly conduct charge was not specifically tied to the noise level, but rather to the general disruption the protest caused the diners: “You’re not allowed to disturb people. That is creating annoyance and alarm. That is disturbing the peace.”
Hartman said it’s not illegal to use a bullhorn at a protest unless it exceeds the levels detailed in the health department’s noise ordinance, which is “about the sound of a washing machine.” But in this case, “the issue was not the megaphone. It was about disturbing the peace of the” diners, Hartman said.
Lugo denied interfering with the officers.
He was released with a promise to appear. He said he plans to plead not guilty. The group plans a 4 p.m. protest Wednesday at City Hall over the arrest.
Asked how the arrest will affect his protests outside Goodfellas, Lugo responded, “I bought a bigger” bullhorn.
“We will not be silenced. We will not be intimidated. We have been picketing Goodfellas for six months. We have been picketing businesses that steal wages from workers for 10 years, and we will not stop,” ULA stated in a press release Wednesday.
“New Haven gets a lot of credit for being a welcoming and progressive city. Is New Haven a welcoming city when workers are criminalized for peaceful
protest, and wage theft goes unpunished?”
Mario Cerame, a Connecticut attorney who has written extensively on free-spech legal issues, posted in the comments section below that complaints to police from a diner about noise at a restaurant do not overcome protesters’ First Amendment right to protest wage theft loudly outside that restaurant.
The group also, on a separate night, video-recorded Police Chief Dean Esserman going in to the restaurant to eat as they confronted him. (Click above to watch.)
Esserman Wednesday said he looks forward to continuing to work with ULA to fight exploitation of immigrants.
“The New Haven police department respects the concerns of ULA and agrees to continue to work with them and listen to them regarding violations of the law with regard to wage theft,” Esserman said. “We would welcome the opportunity to sit with them again.”
Lugo’s group and Esserman’s force teamed up in the past to work with the state in seeking redress for stiffed workers from the former Gourmet Heaven (since closed and reopened under new management). Click here to read about a 2014 press conference at which cops joined ULA to vow to work together on wage theft.
Yale Law School’s Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization filed the suit on behalf of the workers, who accused Goodfellas managers of failing to pay minimum wage or overtime; and of “belittling them” with “racist, xenophobic, and homophobic slurs, and also subjected them to brutal physical working conditions,” according to a release. The suit also charges that their bosses, who have previously been cited for wage and overtime violations, “threatened and intimidated them … to prevent them from seeking legal redress.” Goodfellas denies the allegations.
“We continue to take the position that they acted appropriately in terms of how they handled their employees,” Charles H. Tiernan, whose firm is representing Goodfellas, said Wednesday.