Former Derby High School principal Greg Galliard went to a Starbucks on Dixwell Avenue in Hamden three days before Christmas last December to talk about a union bank account to which he had sole access.
His fellow union members had questions. They had reviewed bank statements. About $13,000 was missing.
Gaillard met with two members of Derby’s small school administrators union — Bradley School Principal Mario Ciccarini and Irving School Principal Jennifer Olson.
The meeting happened a few weeks after Gaillard abruptly resigned his position as Derby High principal. Gaillard had been union president up to that point.
Gaillard told the two school principals he had just deposited $3,000 into the union’s account at Webster Bank, in an attempt to “repay money he had taken out.”
Gaillard allegedly told them he was struggling financially, and apologized that “things got out of control.”
Gaillard “did not seem to understand the seriousness of the money taken from the account,” according to a summary of the meeting. Furthermore, Gaillard “was unsure exactly how much was taken.”
After the Dec. 22 Starbucks meeting, Gaillard texted Ciccarini, saying “Ok. I have the 10k,” and “I will have a Cashier check tomorrow for 10k.”
Ciccarini responded with bad news.
“Greg – we met as a group with the police and it is in their hands now.”
Warrant Released
The details are from an arrest warrant made public Thursday.
It sheds some light on why Gaillard was arrested Tuesday and charged with second-degree larceny, a class C felony.
Gaillard, whose annually salary in Derby was $135,259, is scheduled to appear in court Feb. 25.
Arrest warrants are documents authored by law enforcement and reviewed by a judge. Police have to convince a judge there is probable cause to make an arrest.
They often do not contain complete information on a given criminal case. Statements attributed to an accused person in a warrant should not be construed as a person’s “defense.”
The Valley Indy left messages seeking comment at Gaillard’s lawyer’s office Wednesday and Thursday.
Info From The Warrant
Based on police interviews with the school principals and a review of financial data, the arrest warrant lists 13 “unauthorized” withdrawals and transactions from the union bank account from October 2013 to November 2014.
The first questionable transaction was a $4,700 cash withdrawal Gaillard made on Oct. 28, 2013.
The others were mostly checks written with memos such as “gift,” “end of the year party,” “shirts,” “welcome back dinner,” and “Halloween party.”
The problem, the other Derby school principals allegedly told police — “no such dinners, parties, or shirts were ever purchased, talked about, or agreed upon amongst its members.”
The bank account Gaillard controlled on behalf of his union exists to “assist its members with union representation and emergency funds,” according to the warrant.
The members of the Derby administrators union — four school principals, vice principals, and several special education supervisors — make bi-weekly direct deposit contributions to the account. The account also pays monthly dues to the AFL-CIO.
According to the warrant, the school principals told police that money from the account was usually divided among members just before Christmas. But Gaillard was the only person in the union with access to the account and checks written did not require more than one signature.
Superintendent: Stay Out Of His Office
Gaillard resigned as principal of Derby High School without warning the evening of Dec. 9.
Issues with the union bank account began to surface almost immediately.
According to the warrant, just after resigning, Gaillard sent a text to Martin Pascale, then the vice principal at the high school.
Gaillard asked Pascale to get “and put aside Webster Bank statements that were in his office.”
Pascale contacted Derby Schools Superintendent Matthew Conway, who said Gaillard’s office was off limits to everyone.
“Conway later responded to the Derby High School and recovered several Webster Bank statements from Gaillard’s office,” according to the warrant.
Conway looked at three union bank statements allegedly from Gaillard’s office.
On Dec. 11, Conway called Olson, the Irving School principal, to ask about the union bank account, including who had access and whether there were frequent withdrawals.
That prompted the members of the union to review bank statements, at which time they realized $13,200 was missing, according to the warrant.
The “content” of the three statements Conway found in Gaillard’s office “raised enough concern” that it motivated the union members to look over statements dating back to July 2013.
‘Oh That’
Derby Detective Edward Sullivan met with members of the administrators union at the school district’s Central Office on Fifth Street Dec. 12, at which point police started looking into the matter.
After conducting several interviews, Sullivan talked to Gaillard on the phone Dec. 22 and told him he had received a complaint from his old union.
According to the detective, “Gaillard immediately responded ‘Oh that, I am actually meeting with Ciccarini and Olson tonight to discuss that,” a reference to the planned Starbucks meeting.
“Gaillard asked me if it was possible for this issue to just go away or be handled without police involvement,” Sullivan wrote in the warrant.
Sullivan said that police were already involved, and indicated that only the alleged victims — his former colleagues — could drop it.
That did not happen.
The warrant is printed below. Please note the highlighted portions were from a reporter taking notes and were not added by law enforcement or anyone from the judicial branch.
