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Jean Falbo-Sosnovich | Apr 19, 2024 6:59 am
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Former Seymour Police Officer Jonathan Martin, in a photo taken from Facebook.
SEYMOUR – A former Seymour police sergeant subject to five internal affairs investigations in two years voluntarily surrendered his Connecticut Police Officer Certification.
The move means the former officer, Jonathan Martin, cannot work in law enforcement in Connecticut. However, he can apply to get his certification back next year.
His name will be included on a national list of decertified officers, and he will appear on the state’s Police Officer Standards & Training (POST) website.
“Jonathan Martin has voluntarily surrendered his certification and the case has been closed,” Richard Green, a POST spokesman, told the Valley Indy via an email.
The Valley Indy left a message with Martin’s lawyer.
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Eugene Driscoll | Mar 25, 2024 4:47 pm
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The agenda from a March 19 meeting of the Derby Planning & Zoning Commission.
DERBY – Last week members of the city’s planning and zoning commission discussed three potential development applications without telling the public in advance.
The move sparked a freedom of information debate between Mayor Joseph DiMartino’s administration and longtime P&Z commission chairman Ted Estwan.
The agenda for the March 19 meeting of the Derby Planning & Zoning Commission listed an “informal discussion with Attorney Dominick Thomas on various subjects.”
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Eugene Driscoll & Jasmine Wright | Mar 3, 2024 5:22 pm
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ANSONIA – For the ninth year in a row Ansonia Aldermen voted to follow a budget schedule that violates the city charter, except for one Republican who said he would not break the oath of office he pledged just three months ago.
“I understand that most of my colleagues do not share my concern about this,” Alderman Steven Adamowski said during a Feb. 13 meeting of the Ansonia Board of Aldermen. “Suffice it to say that for myself, I don’t like being in a position where I take an oath of office to support the charter and ordinances in December and end up violating it several months later.”
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Eugene Driscoll | Jan 23, 2024 7:26 pm
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Heavy rain washed out a construction site off Hawthorne Avenue in Derby in September 2018.
DERBY — A lawsuit triggered by a mudslide in west Derby is over, according to a lawyer representing the plaintiffs.
“What I can tell you is that the parties reached an agreement to resolve the matter to their mutual satisfaction. Beyond that statement I cannot comment any further,” said Peter A. Berdon, a lawyer with Berdon, Young & Margolis in New Haven.
Berdon represented a dozen property owners who filed a lawsuit against Derby, engineering companies, three construction companies and others in 2019, a year after a September 2018 rainstorm caused mud, water and rocks to cascade from a city/school district construction project.
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Jean Falbo-Sosnovich | Oct 5, 2023 6:55 pm
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Former Seymour Police Officer Jonathan Martin, in a photo taken from Facebook.
SEYMOUR– A former Seymour police sergeant facing possible decertification by the Connecticut Police Officer Standards and Training Council was allowed to collect roughly a year’s salary and retire in ‘good standing.’
That’s according to a settlement reached between former Seymour Police Sgt. Jonathan Martin and the Town of Seymour. The settlement agreement was approved in a unanimous, bipartisan vote by the Seymour Board of Selectpersons in February.
ANSONIA — An appellate court is considering whether to dismiss a lawsuit opposing the process by which an Olson Drive property was sold to a private developer.
If the court follows through, it will be the second time the claim has been tossed.
Resident Matt McGowan filed a lawsuit against the city in June 2022 arguing Mayor David Cassetti’s administration did not follow proper procedures on the state or local levels when the city purchased land on Olson Drive from the Ansonia Housing Authority and then sold it to a company owned by developer John Guedes.
McGowan was represented by Tom Egan, an Ansonia attorney now seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for mayor.
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Jean Falbo-Sosnovich | Jun 28, 2023 5:30 am
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SEYMOUR — The Seymour Board of Education voted on June 20 to pay $35,000 to the school district’s former facilities manager in order to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit.
Joseph Falzone had filed a lawsuit in 2019 against the school district and the town claiming he was forced out after former business manager Rick Belden and former associate superintendent Vonda Tencza found him asleep at his desk in August 2018.
Falzone said he suffered from sleep apnea, a medical condition that affects sleep and prevents the body from getting enough oxygen, according to his lawsuit.
(Left to right) Derby Parking Enforcement Officer Daniel Reid and Derby Mayor Rich Dziekan outside the Derby parking garage on March 31.
DERBY — A refurbished Derby parking garage remains the city’s white whale after Mayor Rich Dziekan’s request for a $9.1 million state grant was rejected. However, the city has a chance to apply again for the much-needed money, and the mayor is touting new security measures at the downtown garage as a win.
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Eugene Driscoll | Feb 28, 2023 6:16 pm
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Wikimedia Commons
Derby City Hall (Wikimedia Commons Photo)
DERBY – The mayor’s chief of staff said on Monday that the chairman of the city’s tax board is “going rogue” by scheduling a meeting last week without the mayor’s involvement.
“The mayor is the one who schedules meetings. The chairman is not the one who schedules meetings. If something needs to be put on the agenda, it goes through the mayor’s office,” Walt Mayhew, Mayor Rich Dziekan’s chief of staff, said.
However, Roberto Santos, the chairman of the tax board, said the mayor is allowing Mayhew to control and politicize the Derby budget process.
Santos said Mayhew is controlling the finance department, has refused to share documents from the finance office with elected officials, and has canceled the last two tax board meetings even though its members wanted to meet.
“Walter has hijacked the budget and wants to control everything,” Santos said. “There are supposed to be checks and balances. I refuse to be his puppet.”
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Eugene Driscoll | Feb 2, 2023 10:52 am
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SEYMOUR — Seymour detectives traced a bank account to a Maryland-based limited liability company which eventually led them to a suspect accused of swindling money from the town in a cyberscam.
The information comes from an arrest warrant affidavit used by police to lodge first-degree larceny charges against 48-year-old Charles Ukasanya of Gaithersburg, Maryland.
In a press release issued Wednesday, Seymour Police Chief John Bucherati noted the investigation is not closed. Police did not mention whether more arrests are expected.
Earlier this year police and town officials acknowledged the town had been bilked out of $375,000.
