Derby Mayor Anita Dugatto testified Thursday that in 2009 she paid a blogger and resigned her chairmanship of the Derby Democratic Town Committee so the blogger would stop attacking her and her business.
The blogger, Mel Thompson, told her both “demands” had to be met so the negative posts would stop, Dugatto testified in federal court in Hartford.
“I was asked to resign and I resigned. I’m not proud of that,” Dugatto said of her conversations with Thompson.
Dugatto said Thompson’s blog posts — posted anonymously at the time — were so vicious she feared they would affect her dental business in Derby. She was coming off a divorce and was responsible for her dental practice with 10 employees.
“My business was being attacked. The credibility of by my business was affected,” Dugatto testified.
Dugatto, elected mayor in 2013, said the negative attacks on Thompson’s blog stopped after the conversation.
Thompson, in an interview with the Valley Indy outside court, denied the accusation.
“She is lying. She never paid me a nickel,” Thompson said.
Thompson’s now-defunct blog and the havoc it wreaked on Derby Democrats came up several times during the second day of testimony in an $80 million federal civil rights lawsuit Thompson has pending against Dugatto and four members of the Derby Town Democratic Committee.
Thompson claims the Democrats conspired to prevent him from running for mayor in 2009 and worked to keep him out of the local political process. Part of the scheme, according to Thompson, was to smear his name and cripple his ability to run an effective mayoral campaign.
Thompson’s lawsuit accuses the Democrats of discriminating against him because he is black.
But Democrats who testified Thursday — Dugatto, Linda Fusco, Sam Rizzitelli — said Thompson was welcomed into the Democratic Town Committee in 2009 and was treated the same as other members. Race wasn’t a factor, they said.
Thompson further alleges that Democratic Town Committee member Christine Robinson called him the n‑word during an argument in April 2009.
The Argument
It’s an accusation Robinson denied when she took the witness stand Thursday.
In April 2009 Robinson and Thompson got into a heated argument outside Dugatto’s building on Elizabeth Street, where Democrats had gathered to hear the results of a referendum.
Robinson testified that she said “excuse me” while attempting to pass Thompson to get into the building, at which point Thompson cursed at her and called her a name — twice.
The argument continued inside the building.
Thompson’s lawsuit says Robinson threatened to kill him and that she assaulted him during the April 2009 argument.
Robinson denied that, and said she left the building to call her husband.
People present during the argument included Linda Fusco, her husband Sylvester Fusco and Stephanie D’Onofrio. Each testified Thursday that they did not hear Robinson use a racial slur against Thompson.
Linda Fusco testified Robinson never approached Thompson, contradicting testimony Thompson gave Wednesday.
D’Onofrio, who said she supported Thompson’s brief campaign for mayor in 2009, was Thompson’s strongest witness.
She testified that Robinson had to be restrained during the altercation. Robinson said that was not true.
D’Onofrio also testified that she believed the Democrats didn’t like Thompson because of his skin color.
“Because the feeling was — he was black and we’re all white,” D’Onofrio said. “I think it’s a big racial thing.”
But under questioning by Elio Morgan, the lawyer for the Democrats, D’Onofrio said she never heard any of the Democrats discuss Thompson’s race, nor had she heard the Democrats make decisions based on race.
“When you say, ‘you think,’ that’s just your thoughts?” Morgan asked.
“Yes,” D’Onofrio said.
Robinson and Thompson also “exchanged words,” according to testimony, during a February 2009 meeting of the Derby Democratic Town Committee, of which both were members.
Thompson complained about how a Democrat on the city’s tax board had voted to allow a referendum to move forward, going against the will of the Democratic Town Committee.
Robinson, according to Thompson’s lawsuit, “intimidated” him to keep quiet, part of a larger plan to deny Thompson a voice in the Democratic Party.
But Robinson testified she asked Thompson to “sit down and shut up” because he was “ranting and raving” about a person who wasn’t in the room.
More On The Blog
Sam Rizzitelli, a longtime Derby Democrat, took over as party chairman in early 2009 after Dugatto abruptly resigned.
Although Rizzitelli and Thompson had been on the same political team to oppose a referendum in 2009, Rizzitelli said Thompson’s blog became a major bone of contention because of persistent “personal” attacks against he and other Dems.
“The blog issue was toxic. The town was paralyzed by this blogging,” Rizzitelli said.
Judge Michael P. Shea did not permit the witnesses to talk about the specific content from Thompson’s old blog.
Thompson’s lawsuit accuses the Dems of blocking him from trying to seek their support for a mayoral run.
While Thompson expressed an interest in running for mayor in early 2009, Rizzitelli said the Democrats were too busy trying to unify their fractured party to worry about mayoral nominations. Two other people had expressed an interest in running, too, Rizzitelli said, but the Dems didn’t want to start talking about their campaign roster until after the April 2009 referendum.
Under questioning, Rizzitelli said he thought Thompson would make a “bad mayor” because of the blog and because of his propensity to file “frivolous” lawsuits.
“The blog attacked a lot of people, a lot of good people,” Rizzitelli said.
Rizzitelli also testified that Thompson offered to take down negative posts about Rizzitelli for $500.
Judge Shea would not allow Thompson to submit a written statement from former Derby Town Committee member Dan Sexton supporting Thompson’s claims. The document was signed as part of a lawsuit settlement between Sexton and Thompson.
The judge would also not allow Rizzitelli to talk about a 2007 lawsuit involving Thompson and a company based in Hamden in which Thompson was accused of breach of contract in civil court.
Testimony in the trial was scheduled to resume Friday.
