The Ansonia public works employee accused of stealing a city plow and selling it for scrap has applied for a form of special probation that could see the charge against him dismissed.
The employee, James Hooker, 50, appeared at Superior Court in Derby April 18 and filed an application for accelerated rehabilitation, according to court records.
The program, for first-time offenders, allows for charges to be dismissed if defendants complete a probationary term up to two years.
The warrant in the case says public works employees told police that taking scrap from the city yard was something of a common practice, though supervisors at the facility denied that is the case.
The detective investigating the case could not confirm the practice — and noted that Hooker’s actions the day the plow was taken were “suspicious.”
Background
Hooker was arrested on a single count of sixth-degree larceny April 4 after police obtained a warrant for his arrest. Police released Hooker on a written promise to appear in court.
He will return to court May 22, after officials determine if he is eligible for the program and to give the city an opportunity to object to the charges.
Mayor James Della Volpe said Friday that he had received notice of the hearing and forwarded it to the Board of Public Works to make a decision about whether to object to Hooker taking part in the program.
Messages were left Friday at phone numbers listed on the section of the city’s website for the public works board. There is no number listed for the board’s chairman, John T. Finnucan.
A message seeking comment on the case was also left with Hooker’s lawyer, Clifford P. Hoyle, on Friday.
According to a six-page arrest warrant application written by Detective John Rafalowski on file at Superior Court in Derby, Michael Schryver, superintendent of the city’s public works department, reported the plow stolen March 16.
‘Doing The City A Favor’
A week earlier, according to the warrant, Animal Control Officer Jeanne Roslonowski saw a blue dump truck behind the dog pound, which is located at the public works complex on North Division Street, with what she believed to be a plow in the back of it.
Roslonowki passed the information on to Lt. Andrew Cota, who went to the dog pound about 1 p.m. and saw the truck, which he recognized as Hooker’s, “parked at such an angle that the vehicle could not be seen by anyone driving through the complex.”
Cota saw an orange snow plow in the back of truck, but could not locate Schryver at the time, but notified him about what he saw five days later, according to the warrant.
Rafalowski interviewed Schryver on March 16, the warrant says, at which point Schryver said that on March 12, one of the public works foremen, told Schryver a plow was missing from the complex.
The plow had been outside the maintenance garage, “where items of scrap metal are kept for later disposal,” the warrant says.
Police checked four scrap yards in the area in an attempt to locate the plow, but employees at all of them denied receiving the plow.
Rafalowski and Detective Stephen Adcox then interviewed Hooker at the police station, the warrant says, where he admitted taking the plow.
When asked why, the warrant says, “he stated that it was scrap metal and that the city was going to get rid of it anyway so he was doing the city a ‘favor’ by taking it to a scrap yard.”
‘The Bosses Knew’
“He stated that other employees take scrap metal from the complex and that the bosses knew about them taking scrap metal,” the warrant goes on to say.
Detectives later interviewed Schryver, who said that neither he nor any of the foremen have given permission to anyone to remove scrap metal from the complex.
But the warrant says City Mechanic Lou Maida told Rafalowski that “There have been employees that have asked Maida if they could take a piece of scrap metal from the scrap pile and he would say yes that no one has told them they couldn’t.”
Maida wouldn’t tell police the names of any of those employees, and added that “these were smaller metal items and nothing the size of the plow or that would weigh 900 pounds.”
Days later, two other public works employees, John Tomasella and Timothy Holman, provided written statements to police.
Tomasella, who said he had worked at public works for 17 years, said “neither he nor any employee he knows has ever been told they cannot take scrap metal from the transfer station area.” Rafalowski notes in the warrant that the plow wasn’t in the transfer station area when it was taken.
Holman, identified in the warrant as the chief union steward, gave police a statement saying there “is no written policy regarding the taking of scrap metal and he knows of no one being told they cannot take scrap.”
‘Questionable’ Judgment
On the warrant’s last page, Rafalowski doubts Hooker’s claims that it was common for employees to take scrap and that supervisors knew about the practice.
“The superintendent and all three foremen deny giving anyone permission to remove items from the complex,” the warrant says, adding that Hooker’s actions on the day the plow was taken were “suspicious.”
“Hooker waited until the morning break to take the plow but then did not ask for any help loading a 900-pound plow into his truck,” Rafalowski wrote. “Hooker then parked the truck behind a building where it could not be seen by anyone driving through the complex.
“Furthermore a check of the scrap yard Hooker stated the plow was taken to had no record of the plow being bought to them, calling into question what was actually done with the plow.”
Regarding the statements Maida, Tomasella, and Holman gave, the warrant says: “None of the parties offered anything of substance in their statements other than vague references to everyone takes scrap metal without ever naming anyone.”
