David Ray,
More on the Republican Mayor and defeated Senatorial candidate accused of sex crimes with a minor.
Does this guy give you a warm and fuzzy feeling about the superior Republican morals you proclaim?
Is the jailed mother who was pimping her pre-pubescent daughter a good Republican too?
ctnow.com
FBI Probe Continues
By MARK PAZNIOKAS And EDMUND MAHONY
The Hartford Courant
July 31, 2001
WATERBURY - The FBI seized more documents Monday from the office of jailed Mayor Philip A. Giordano, with at least one of the targets of the continuing investigation being a controversial sewage-treatment plant built by a company with alleged ties to organized crime.
A lone agent, who carried boxes from the offices of the mayor and corporation counsel, barely attracted a second look, unlike Thursday when dozens of agents arrived armed with search warrants.
"They're in and out of our offices all the time,'' said acting Mayor Sam S.F. Caligiuri. "They're doing their thing. I'm trying to do my thing." Caligiuri spent much of the day meeting with city department heads and preparing for an emergency meeting of the board of aldermen.
A crush of reporters descended on city hall for Caligiuri's briefing with the board. He spent a few minutes addressing the aldermen about the state's recent appointment of another financial overseer for the financially strapped city, then adjourned without uttering the mayor's name.
Giordano, 38, who was arrested Thursday by the FBI and charged with enticing a child into a sexual relationship, can seek his release on bail this afternoon. If successful, Giordano will resume being mayor and Caligiuri will return to his former post as president of the board of aldermen.
Federal prosecutors temporarily won Giordano's detention as a flight risk and public danger, but a judge's order sealing key files has left the evidence secret. That will change today, unless Giordano accepts his continued jailing. If he fights his detention, prosecutors are free to present their evidence in open court.
The Giordano investigation is the third high-profile public investigation now under way by the U.S. attorney's office. Investigations into the administrations of Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim and former state Treasurer Paul Silvester already have produced nearly a dozen convictions. Silvester has pleaded guilty. Ganim, who denies any wrongdoing, has seen four friends admit their participation in a massive kickback scheme.
But Giordano, the three-term mayor and last year's losing Republican nominee for U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Joseph I. Lieberman, has taken over the spotlight.
With its parallel paths of sex and corruption - including allegations of a mother providing her young daughter to the mayor for sexual activity - the Giordano case has inspired a media frenzy.
Gov. John G. Rowland, a Waterbury native and fellow Republican, called for Giordano's resignation hours after his arrest. The television news vans have been a constant presence on Grand Street.
In Giordano's case, the investigators have conducted very different searches, ranging from the low-key seizure of documents pertaining to the construction of the new sewage-treatment plant, to the surreal collection of physical evidence in the sex case.
The sewage plant long has been a source of speculation in Waterbury, given that a prime contractor, Worth Construction Co., was owned during the plant's construction by Joseph Pontoriero, who has been linked by New York authorities to organized crime. The company has denied organized-crime links.
The search for evidence in the sex case has hardly been low key. Last week, an investigator wearing a biomedical hazard suit was seen carrying a rug from Giordano's private law office.
The sex investigation prompted FBI agents to arrange for the state Department of Children and Families to remove two girls from their home before the mayor's arrest. Although sources initially placed the girls' ages as 9 and 11, family members described them as 8 and 11. A government source Monday confirmed the girls' ages as 8 and 11.
Like Giordano, the mother of one of the girls also is jailed, accused of allowing the mayor to have sexual contact with her daughter. Her file is sealed to protect the victim's identity.
Courant Staff Writer Jon Lender contributed to this story. |
