
ANSONIA — It looks like a judge will need to resolve a dispute between a Main Street used car dealership and a couple who have led a series of protests outside the business.
The two sides met in a Milford courthouse Tuesday but could not resolve their differences.
So they’ll return to court June 28 to have a judge hear both sides of the case.
Natalia Illas, of Seymour, and her boyfriend, Christopher Edwards, of Naugatuck, began protesting outside Road Ready Used Cars at 520 Main St. May 5 after a dispute concerning an $11,000 car they bought there.
The issue took on a life of its own after a video of Road Ready employees disparaging the couple went viral.
In the 10-minute video recorded on Edwards’ cell phone, a Road Ready employee tells Edwards “I’ll knock the f***ing beard right off your chin,” then requests that Edwards meet him down the street, without a camera.
Another makes lewd comments about Illas.
Another says he didn’t think Edwards was “Valley trash” given the fact he served in the U.S. Marine Corps.
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The video led to a widespread backlash and prompted the couple to say they’d keep the protest going until the business shuts down.
The dealership’s owner, Ron Saracino, said his employees were clearly in the wrong.
One of them — a man who threatened Edwards on the video — was fired, according to Saracino. Others have been sent through anger management and sensitivity training.
Saracino said he offered a refund to Illas and Edwards but was turned down.
So he filed a request for a temporary injunction in court in an attempt to stop the couple’s protests — and to prevent them from posting about the business on social media.
The filing says the blowback caused by the controversy has jeopardized the business “for a $521.45 expense which (Edwards) needlessly brought upon himself, and an insult to his girlfriend.”
Edwards and a lawyer representing Road Ready appeared briefly before Judge Frank Iannotti at Superior Court in Milford Tuesday.
The judge asked both sides to see if they could resolve their issues on their own.
If not, he said a hearing would be scheduled.
Edwards and Illas then spoke for about 20 minutes outside the courtroom with Road Ready’s lawyer, Jonathan Klein.
But the two sides couldn’t strike a deal.
Afterwards, Edwards said he offered to drop his protest — and his social media campaign against Road Ready — in exchange for the dealership taking the car back and returning their deposit, along with about $500 for the repairs they already paid for.
In a public video he posted to Facebook, Edwards said he and Illas were willing to drop the matter today.
But after their offer was rebuffed, Edwards said he and Illas have a First Amendment right to speak their minds about the business.
“They’re trying to silence everything we’re saying,” he said.
“We weren’t asking for anything extra,” Edwards said in the video. “We’re not trying to extort them, as some people may think. We want no money out of this.”
Saracino said he offered Edwards and Illas a full refund weeks ago, before their protest — and his employees’ boorish behavior — damaged his business’ reputation, perhaps irreparably.
Now he wants a judge to help him clear his name.
“I want the court to find me innocent,” Saracino said. “I want the judge to say, ‘You know what Mr. Edwards, you were wrong.’”
“I think that’s the only way people will understand what really happened,” he said. “Because the video tainted us.”
Edwards also said he’d be taking his concerns about the business — and a petition of signatures from supporters — to the Board of Aldermen meeting scheduled for June 12.
He said he wants to build public pressure for the business to return a $400,000 “tax rebate” it got to help clean up the property, the former Healey Ford dealership. Edwards said he wants the money to go to Ansonia’s public schools, which are struggling to deal with a $600,000 budget cut.
“This is a good way for Road Ready to give back,” Edwards said, citing the “Valley trash” comment made in the video.
However, the $400,000 wasn’t a rebate, but a loan from the federal EPA obtained through the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments.
Saracino said he’s paying 5 percent interest on the loan and has been making monthly payments. He said Edwards’ proposal was unrealistic.
“It’s absurd what they’re even coming up with,” he said.