Police are searching for a man with violent connections to the New York and Albanian mafia who skipped out on his sentencing Friday (Aug. 1) for raping a woman in Derby.
Dardian “Danny” Celaj, 36, faced up to eight years behind bars for a nauseating 2012 attack on a woman who worked at the now-defunct Club Europa, a private social club on Main Street.
Celaj will now face an additional felony charge — first-degree failure to appear — if and when he is apprehended.
Celaj pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault in April. He lodged the plea immediately after the victim in the case took the stand in Superior Court in Milford and detailed what Celaj did to her.
But Celaj hired a new attorney, Stephan Seeger, who filed court paperwork hoping to withdraw the guilty plea.
Seeger’s motion to withdraw his client’s guilty plea is based on his assertion that Celaj didn’t have enough information on the fact his guilty plea could lead to his deportation.
Judge Frank Iannotti was due to hear arguments on Seeger’s motion Friday morning. He waited 30 minutes for Celaj to show up.
“It would appear … that your client has absented himself from the jurisdiction,” the judge told Seeger.
Seeger said he had made two phone calls to Celaj’s cell phone which went straight to voicemail.
“I don’t know where he is,” Seeger said.
Albanian Muscle
Celaj’s resume includes working as a thug-for-hire on behalf of the Genovese crime family in New York. He also has ties to the Albanian mob, according to prosecutors and statements made by witnesses in open court.
The victim in Derby — who only worked at Club Europa for a week — didn’t come forward immediately because his connections to the criminal underworld were well known, according to documents on file in court.
Celaj was indicted in 2007 and convicted in federal court in 2011 for breaking into houses in Orange County, N.Y. and Morris County, N.J. and robbing wealthy victims targeted by members of the Genovese crime family.
He was “Albanian muscle,” according to a 2007 article from the New York Daily News. The paper 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.
Where Is He?
According to a court filing, Celaj cooperated with the feds during their investigation into the mob-ordered home invasions. He ended up receiving a three-year sentence of time served, and supervised probation.
He then moved to the Valley. Celaj’s last known address was Country Place in Shelton.
His past cooperation, presumably, could make him a mob target. His lawyer Friday asked Judge Iannotti to put Celaj in “segregation of some sort, if he is picked up.”
The judge asked Celaj’s lawyer if he was sure he wanted that on the record without talking to his client.
“I have no other choice,” Celaj’s lawyer said.
After court Seeger said there’s a public perception that his client has ties to organized crime. It may not be true, but the perception could put his client in harm’s way if he lands back in jail.
“There’s been a lot of hype about Mr. Celaj’s case, some of which may be true, some of which may not be true,” Seeger said. “Out of an abundance of caution we made the request on the record for obvious reasons, one of which quite simply is you can’t believe everything you hear.”
Seeger also took issue with the prosecution’s characterizations of Celaj as having mob ties, and downplayed Celaj’s past federal conviction.
“Many people plead guilty to things in federal court for a host of different reasons,” he said.
Celaj was free because he had posted a $250,000 bond early in the rape case. The judge ordered that bond to be forfeited. If he’s caught, he’ll be faced with a $1 million cash-only bond.
‘This Stuff Is Scary’
State’s Attorney Kevin Lawlor said Celaj is a flight risk with a history of violence.
“Now it’s up to law enforcement to bring him in,” Lawlor said. “All you have to do is Google his name. If you read those cases of what he was doing with his crew, this stuff is scary.”
Given Celaj’s history, the judge ordered him to be monitored electronically by court officials and ordered Celaj to confine himself at his home unless going to or from work.
Lawlor would not comment on what, if anything, the monitoring indicated Friday about Celaj’s whereabouts.
Seeger, Celaj’s lawyer, said Friday he didn’t know why Celaj wasn’t in court.
He said his motion seeking to have Celaj’s guilty plea withdrawn was “unaffected” by his client’s no-show.
“We have to wait to see if Mr. Celaj is apprehended, and should he appear, bring that to the attention of the court,” Seeger said. “There are many cases in which bond is called and there is a viable and understandable reason for a client not to show up. We essentially do not know where he is at this point.”
Celaj had not been found as of 4 p.m. Friday.
