On a “cold and raw” winter day in 2003, Shelton developer James Botti visited Inland Wetlands Commissioner Randy Szkola at his Shelton home.
What Botti didn’t know at the time was that Szkola was wearing a wire and the FBI was taping every word between them.
It was during that conversation that Botti claimed he had dirt on local politicians and developers who were allegedly trading favors for approvals.
“I could take down like,” Botti said in a recorded conversation, pausing for several seconds, “about 17 developers and probably a big chunk of town hall.”
The tape was played during the second day of Botti’s federal corruption trial at U.S. District Court in New Haven.
Botti is charged with conspiracy to defraud the citizens of Shelton, mail fraud and bribery.
On the tape, Botti appeared to be asking Szkola his advice on getting wetlands approval for a development next to to the Crown Point project on Bridgeport Avenue. Botti also referenced work he did on Mayor Mark A. Lauretti’s house in 2002.
Most of the conversation is garbled and the transcript of the conversation won’t be made available to the public until Wednesday.
The Informant
Szkola’s testimony revealed he often communicated with the FBI during its eight-year investigation into alleged corruption in Shelton.
Szkola said he contacted the FBI in 2003 to alert them of “corruption in the city of Shelton — government corruption.”
Over the next several years, Szkola gave information to the FBI, calling them immediately after he heard about corrupt activities, Szkola testified.
“While it was fresh in my memory, I wanted to call them as soon as I could,” Szkola said. “Within the hour if I could.”
Szkola did landscaping for Botti between October 2003 and January 2004. He said during that time he would sometimes go to Botti’s office for a cup of coffee.
One time, Botti showed him the inside of his office safe.
“He opened the door,” Szkola testified Tuesday. “There were three velvet shelves. On one shelf there was a check. And that was all that was on that shelf. He said ‘This is from Mayor Mark Lauretti on what he owes me on his house.’”
Botti called it his “cover-your-ass” check, Szkola said.
“It’s locked up in this safe and I’ll only use it if I have to use it,” Botti allegedly told Szkola.
Botti is accused of completing renovations on Lauretti’s home in exchange for Lauretti’s influence to get Botti’s projects approved by local land use boards.
U.S. attorney Rahul Kale questioned Szkola at the end of the day Tuesday. Botti’s attorney, William Dow III, started questioned Szkola for about 10 minutes Tuesday and will resume first thing Wednesday morning.
Home Renovations
Much of Tuesday’s testimony focused on work Botti did on Lauretti’s home in 2002.
Lynn Miller, the chief financial officer for the former Housatonic Lumber in Derby, testified about lumber Botti purchased from the company for various projects, including the renovations to Lauretti’s home.
Botti renovated an existing garage into a family room, and then later built a new attached garage with a master suite on the second floor at the home. The work was done during March and April of 2002.
During Miller’s testimony, Kale presented a handwritten letter from Housatonic Lumber’s credit manager, which was dated Sept. 26, 2002.
The letter was written to Lauretti, and addressed invoices for Botti’s company, East Coast Builders, for the materials for Lauretti’s home.
“They informed me that they are your invoices and that you would pay them,” the letter states, indicating that East Coast Builders told Housatonic Lumber that the invoices for the materials should be paid for by Lauretti. “Please call me and let me know when they will be paid.”
Miller said, while not a common practice, the company sometimes did send out a handwritten note such as this one.
Botti’s former assistant, Mary Ellen Randi, also testified about invoices for the home renovations.
She said one of her first assignments after taking the job in Spring 2003 was to type a letter to Lauretti asking for payment of about $19,600 for the work.
Randi said Botti instructed her to back date the letter to the time of the invoices, a date that was not identified in court Tuesday.
“I did what I was told,” Randi testified.
She didn’t mail that letter, or a second one she typed with the real date. Randi said Botti took the letters and she is not sure what happened to them.
The immediate relevance of the second letter was not made clear in court.
Part of the questioning revealed a check from Lauretti to Botti made out on Jan. 24, 2004 for $19,654 — the amount owed for work on Lauretti’s home.
Christmas Party
The U.S. attorneys also focused their questioning on a December 2003 Christmas party Botti threw at a restaurant owned by Lauretti — Lauretti’s Pierpoint Tavern.
Much of the focus Tuesday was on how many people attended the party, how long the open bar was for — and what type of food was served.
On May 26, 2004, Botti paid almost $9,000 for that party.
Randi sent out the invitations and said about 60 people were invited, including many public officials on the land use boards.
There were also several questions about whether the party was co-hosted by local developer Monty Blakeman.
The invitation only lists Crown Point Associates, Botti’s company, as the host. And it was signed by Botti and his father, Peter Botti.
Testimony resumes Wednesday morning.
