On Wednesday morning a federal judge is scheduled to hear two very different stories about James Costanzo.
Costanzo, facing up to six years in prison for running a black market pharmacy from his house on Dwight Street in Ansonia, will present himself as a victim of circumstance, a drug addict who turned to selling pills to support his own habit.
But federal prosecutors will describe Costanzo as a calculating criminal who threw his girlfriend through a glass table and bragged about smashing a man’s face into an oven door.
Costanzo pleaded guilty last February to distributing oxycodone pills and money laundering.
A plea agreement in the case calls for Costanzo to face up to 71 months behind bars at Wednesday’s sentencing.
Federal agents arrested Costanzo last January after an investigation that they said uncovered a drug dealing operation at Costanzo’s home.
Brian Earl, a North Haven resident and co-conspirator, was also arrested. He was sentenced to a 37-month prison term last July.
Costanzo’s dealing was so lucrative that he was able to plunk down $75,000 cash to buy a second house on Dwight Street, according to the feds — in addition to other properties in Waterbury and Florida.
His sentencing, which has been postponed four times, is scheduled for Wednesday (May 11) at 11 a.m. at U.S. District Court in Bridgeport.
Two Costanzos
Documents filed ahead of Wednesday’s sentencing depict alternate pictures of Costanzo, a 38-year-old who has been behind bars since police and federal agents raided his house in January 2014.
For example, a sentencing memo filed by Costanzo’s lawyer, Donald Cretella, says that Costanzo was “clearly abusing drugs,” and seeks a 24-month prison sentence, which if granted would probably see Costanzo set free Wednesday, based on time served.
A judge allowed the memorandum to be filed under seal, meaning it is not available to the public.
But the document was quoted extensively by federal prosecutors in a memo of their own asking the judge to sentence Costanzo to between 57 and 71 months behind bars.
The feds say Costanzo concocted his hard luck story of being a drug addict to escape a harsher punishment.
As proof, they point to a conversation between Costanzo and his girlfriend recorded at Wyatt Detention Center, a privately-run prison in Rhode Island.
The conversation took place two days after Costanzo’s arrest and was recorded as a matter of routine by federal corrections officials.
About an hour into the conversation, Costanzo tells the woman: “Oh, just so you know, yeah, we have a real drug problem … good to have done a lot … my attorney said that would substantiate why there were so many … together, like 30 a day.”
“Nothing in the DEA investigation that led to the arrest of the defendant supports his claim that he was abusing drugs leading up to his arrest,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David X. Sullivan wrote in the memo. “James Costanzo possessed pills and other drugs to sell for profit, and not for personal consumption.”
The recorded conversation between Costanzo and his girlfriend has served as a focal point of Costanzo’s prosecution.
Prosecutors played the recording in court during the detention hearing a few weeks after his arrest, saying it showed Costanzo telling his girlfriend how to run his drug dealing business even when he was behind bars — after berating her in an expletive-laced tirade for telling others he had been arrested.
A federal judge called the recording “disturbing” in denying the bid from Costanzo to be released on bail.
Costanzo’s own lawyer conceded the recording made his client sound like “an a — hole.”
Costanzo expressed remorse for the way he talked to his girlfriend, saying it was “exactly like his father and he vowed never to treat a woman like that again.”
“The government is not convinced,” Sullivan wrote. “The defendant has a history of being verbally and physically abusive to women and men alike.”
Sullivan wrote that Costanzo had plenty of opportunities for reform before the detention hearing.
The prosecutor said Costanzo abused another ex-girlfriend, who has a 20-stitch scar across her forehead as evidence. And prosecutors said he bullied his neighbors by slashing their tires and damaging their homes after they complained about drug dealing activity.
And in addition to Costanzo’s verbal harangues, prosecutors said Costanzo’s girlfriend “was the victim of physical violence as well.”
“She had been thrown through a glass table at 70 Dwight St. in the presence of others,” Sullivan wrote.
And during a “controlled purchase” of drugs from Costanzo during the investigation, Sullivan said Costanzo bragged about putting a man’s head through an oven door window and knocking another man out unconscious.
“Did the defendant hear himself talking then? Was there any remorse after all of the boasting?” Sullivan wondered. “The defendant’s silence is deafening. He has no one to blame but himself for his violent actions.”
