A prosecutor said Friday that Dardian Celaj removed a GPS device he had been outfitted with before skipping out on a sentencing date at which he faced eight years behind bars for a nauseating 2012 rape of a woman who worked for him in Derby.
But the 37-year-old Celaj, also known as “Danny,” apparently didn’t venture far after he cut out on his sentencing Aug. 1. — U.S. Marshals arrested him at a friend’s home in Naugatuck Thursday.
Because he didn’t show up for his sentencing — and also skipped out on an unrelated Seymour domestic violence case — he now faces an additional 10 years behind bars on charges of failure to appear in court.
Celaj appeared at Superior Court in Derby Friday for arraignment.
There, Judge Peter Brown ordered him held on a $1 million cash-only bond in the rape case and transferred the matter to Superior Court in Milford, where he had pleaded guilty in April.
Celaj is scheduled to appear in Milford court Tuesday, Sept. 2.
Even if he or one of his friends or relatives were to come up with the $1 million cash to post his bond, the Department of Homeland Security has placed an “immigration detainer” on Celaj, an Albanian native, requiring any local authorities to turn him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the event he were to be released in the Derby case.
The detainer says ICE has “reason to believe (Celaj) is an alien subject to removal from the United States” because he has felony convictions and “otherwise poses a significant risk to national security, border security, or public safety.”
Court records in the case listed addresses for Celaj in Shelton and Brookfield.
Though the lawyer representing Celaj at his arraignment Friday, Ralph Crozier of Seymour, said Celaj’s family owns several apartment buildings in New York City and “has more than the wherewithal to post that bond,” he said the ICE detainer means it’d be a waste of time for them to do so.
Celaj pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine in April to a single count of first-degree sexual assault about an hour into a trial on charges he attacked and raped an employee of Club Europa, a Main Street private club.
As the victim recounted the lurid details of the attack from the witness stand, Celaj motioned to his lawyer to take a recess so he could take a plea deal.
But after pleading guilty in the case, Celaj hired a new lawyer who filed court paperwork hoping to withdraw the guilty plea.
The motion to withdraw was based on the new lawyer’s assertion that Celaj didn’t have enough information on the fact his guilty plea could lead to his deportation.
Lawyer: ‘A Very Nice Young Man’
Outside court Friday Crozier disputed Celaj’s alleged past as a mob enforcer, showing reporters an FBI criminal background check that listed no disposition for a 2007 federal indictment out of New York that accused Celaj of being a strong-man in organized crime circles.
But, according to federal court records, Celaj pleaded guilty in July 2011 to two counts of robbery and single counts of use or carrying a firearm with respect to a crime of violence, conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to commit extortion, and conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
According to court records, Celaj received a sentence of time served in that case, in which he was accused of working as a thug-for-hire on behalf of the Genovese crime family in New York.
Article continues after document.
He was “Albanian muscle,” according to a 2007 article from the New York Daily News which quoted a federal prosecutor who said Celaj and cronies taped up members of a Morristown, NJ family and pistol-whipped a Manhattan businessman in one of the heists, after which they made off with $80,000 in cash, coins, and jewelry.
Another Daily News story, from June 2010, quoted testimony from the owner of an East Village pub in New York City as identifying Celaj as one of two mob goons who tried to extort $1,500 per week in “protection money”. One of them tried to stab the pub owner’s hand with a screwdriver.
Crozier said Friday that “the story about this guy’s past is greatly, greatly, greatly, greatly, greatly exaggerated.”
“He’s a very nice young man,” Crozier said. “I don’t think he has an evil bone in his body.”
But even if Celaj’s didn’t have a past as a an alleged mob enforcer, he still manhandled and raped a woman who worked for him in 2012, didn’t he?
“I don’t know what transpired on that date,” Crozier said. “He believes it was a consensual act.”
Celaj pleaded guilty in the rape case under the Alford doctrine, which means a defendant does not admit the allegations against him, but he concedes the state has enough evidence to make a conviction likely at trial.
Crozier said Celaj bailed on his sentencing date because “he was very scared and did something stupid.”
He was scared, Crozier said, because Milford State’s Attorney Kevin Lawlor had made prior statements in court alleging Celaj had gotten a sweetheart deal from the feds after cooperating in the mob investigation.
Celaj was fearful of being “labeled a rat” behind bars, Crozier said, calling Lawlor’s statements inappropriate and unprofessional.
Lawlor was out of the office Friday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.
GPS Monitoring?
After he pleaded guilty, Judge Frank Iannotti ordered Celaj to be monitored electronically via GPS by probation officials.
Prosecutor John Kerwin said in court Friday that Celaj had “removed that device and did not appear for sentencing.”
Kerwin didn’t elaborate on how Celaj removed the device, and judicial branch and probation officials declined to comment Friday on the details of the case, because it is still pending.
Gary Roberge, the state’s director of adult probation and bail services, said Friday that the state contracts with a monitoring company that keeps track of defendants who are subjected to electronic monitoring.
In the event a defendant tampers with or removes the GPS device, which are attached to defendants’ ankles, Roberge said the company notifies probation officials.
“And that would require further investigation by an officer,” Roberge said. “It’s on a case-by-case basis as to the exact response.”
Click here to read a March 2014 legislative research report about the use of GPS monitoring in Connecticut.
But given the fact that an alleged mob-connected rapist was able to abscond after removing the GPS device monitoring him, is there any sort of internal review going on regarding the state’s use of GPS monitoring?
“If cases are brought to our attention we’ll always review a case and determine what changes to policies and procedures need to take place based on what we learn,” Roberge said.
Asked if such a review was occurring because of Celaj’s case, Roberge said: “I can’t comment on this case, as it’s a pending case.”
Rhonda Stearley-Hebert, a judicial branch spokeswoman, said Friday that “we’re still looking into the incident.”
Other Charges
Celaj also faces another case out of Seymour in which he was arrested Jan. 30 on charges of second-degree burglary, breach of peace and criminal mischief.
According to court documents, Celaj is accused of pushing in the door of his girlfriend’s residence on Balance Rock Road, after which he became “verbally violent.”
The girlfriend left the residence out of fear, after which Celaj is accused of “destroying items throughout the apartment.”
