Charges against a man arrested by Ansonia police in September after cops allegedly found him dismantling vehicles illegally and shipping the parts to his native Iraq will likely be dismissed.
Judge Peter Brown granted the man’s entry into a pretrial diversionary program Friday (Nov. 14) at Superior Court in Derby.
Hayder Abdulrasool Al-Kulabi, a New Haven resident, was arrested Sept. 25 after police were sent to a storage building at 540 E. Main St. on a complaint from David Blackwell Sr., the city’s zoning enforcement officer.
Prosecutor John Kerwin said in court Friday that police found eight vehicles being dismantled.
Though cops initially suspected Al-Kulabi, 42, of running a “chop shop,” they concluded the vehicles were not stolen after Al-Kulabi provided them with paperwork showing the he had purchased the vehicles legally.
But since Al-Kulabi did not have a required license from the state Department of Motor Vehicles to dismantle the vehicles and ship the parts overseas, he was charged with eight misdemeanor counts of violating state motor vehicle recycling registration requirements.
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Police also called in agents from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the FBI because Al-Kulabi is an Iraqi national here on a temporary visa. Al-Kulabi is going back to Iraq in January.
Al-Kulabi posted a $5,000 bond in the case a day after his arrest.
Last month he applied for accelerated rehabilitation, a form of unsupervised probation that, if completed successfully, results in criminal charges against a defendant being dismissed.
Accelerated rehabilitation is often used for non-violent, first-time offenders.
The prosecutor did not object to Al-Kulabi’s application Friday, on the condition that he obtain any permits or licenses required by the DMV or local zoning officials.
Al-Kulabi’s lawyer, John Cirello, said his client had in the past traveled to the United States to salvage vehicles and send the parts back to Iraq to be sold there.
But he folded up his business after being arrested in September.
“He’s shut down the operation,” Cirello said in court. “He’s not operating the business any longer. When he got arrested, he just realized he should stop doing whatever he was doing.”
Judge Brown then granted Al-Kulabi’s application and continued the case to Jan. 2, at which point the charges will be dismissed unless Al-Kulabi has run afoul of the law.
The judge ordered him to abide by any local, state, and federal laws or regulations for any work he might perform in the country before returning to Iraq in January.
Cirello said outside court that the case had been blown out of proportion.
“We had all the documentation showing all the cars were purchased legally,” he said. “I don’t run governments, but it would have been a much more efficient use of resources if they had just popped in and asked him to get the appropriate licensing.”
