The victim of a 2012 rape inside a Derby social club stood in court Monday and said she can’t erase the brutality from her mind and urged the judge to send her attacker to prison.
“It’s taken me over two and a half years to leave my street by myself — to be around people I do not know,” the woman said. “He destroyed my confidence and self-worth. That continues to be a daily struggle.”
After listening to the woman, Judge Frank A. Iannotti sentenced Dardian ‘Danny’ Celaj to 14 years behind bars, to be followed by six years of special probation, for first-degree sexual assault.
Celaj — who was previously convicted in federal court for attacking people on behalf of the Genovese organized crime family — faced up to 20 years.
In a sentencing hearing at Superior Court in Milford Monday, the judge called the rape “one of the worst sexual assaults I have ever seen.”
“To say the offense was egregious is an understatement,” Iannotti said.
The female victim was a new employee at Club Europa, an Albanian social club formerly at 142 – 144 Main St.
Celaj, a Shelton resident, ran the club, according to statements made in court.
Celaj, drunk, raped the woman, then 22 years old, inside the club after hours in March 2012.
The trauma from the ordeal has not subsided. The woman struggles with guilt and blames herself for the attack, saying she should have left the social club when she had the chance.
The fear is still there, too.
“I’ve spent endless nights wondering if he was going to come through my door. I will never feel safe anywhere I go,” she said.
At the time of the rape, Celaj had only been out of federal prison for seven months — during which time he managed to get arrested twice for violent crimes in the Valley. He still has other criminal cases pending locally.
Monday was the second time the victim spoke in court with her attacker present.
She first testified for about 80 minutes during Celaj’s trial in April. Her testimony was so convincing Celaj opted to throw in the towel and plead guilty.
Celaj worked out a plea agreement that would have seen him receive between two and eight years in prison.
But, while out on bond awaiting his original sentencing date, Celaj allegedly shed himself of the court’s GPS device and went on the run for 27 days.
U.S. Marshals captured him in Naugatuck on Aug. 28.
In court Monday, his lawyer, Stephan E. Seeger, said Celaj didn’t show up for his original sentencing date because he was spooked by media stories detailing his connections to the criminal underworld.
“Those reports scared him,” Seeger said.
But the judge noted Celaj’s failure to show up in court victimized the woman, again.
Kevin D. Lawlor, the state’s attorney for the Ansonia-Milford Judicial District, noted Celaj had six prior felony convictions on his criminal record — and a history of violence.
He said the victim’s testimony was the key to the the case.
“She rightly looks to you for justice, and to this court for justice,” Lawlor told Judge Iannotti. “The only reason we are standing here is because of her bravery.”
The victim said the only good thing to come out of her experience was that she was able to summon strength she didn’t know she had.
“I will never feel sorry or have sympathy for him, even though he says he’s done nothing wrong,” she said.
Immediately before being sentenced to 14 years in prison Monday, the judge considered a motion to vacate Celaj’s guilty plea from April.
Seeger, Celaj’s lawyer, did not represent Celaj during his brief trial in April. Seeger argued that Celaj’s previous lawyer did not fully explain the fact that pleading guilty could lead to his deportation to Albania since Celaj is not a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Celaj took the stand Monday and testified that he was rushed and nervous when he pleaded guilty to the rape in April. His prior lawyer told him just to plead guilty and they would check with an immigration attorney later as to whether he could be deported, Celaj testified.
However, the judge didn’t find Celaj’s testimony credible, noting that he had been through the system many times before and that the question as to whether he could be deported could have been answered during the two years the case was pending in Superior Court.
Seeger Monday said he plans to file an appeal.
