Posted on 06/01/2007 7:59:45 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
HARTFORD, Conn. - A legislative leader was arrested Friday on charges that he tried to have a businessman at the center of a federal racketeering probe arrange to rough up someone the senator believed was abusing a relative.
State and federal authorities said Senate Minority Leader Louis DeLuca in 2005 sought help from James Galante, a Danbury trash hauler currently awaiting trial on 72 counts of tax fraud, racketeering, threatening and extortion.
"When you approach someone who is alleged to be a member of organized crime or affiliated with organized crime and you ask for this help, and you slip a note to them in a diner as opposed to even having a conversation, I think it's fair to draw an inference that you don't exactly have the best of intentions," U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said Friday.
DeLuca, a Republican from Woodbury, was booked on a misdemeanor charge Friday of second-degree conspiracy to commit threatening. He was scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Waterbury Superior Court.
DeLuca, 73, said in a written statement that he made a bad decision and was embarrassed by his actions.
"I tried to protect a family member who was vulnerable, who was in a physically abusive domestic relationship and who needed help," he said. "My family and I went to the police three times to get help for my relative, but the police said that they couldn't help because the victim wouldn't file a complaint."
DeLuca said he was frustrated by the situation and discussed it with Galante, whom he met a few years earlier when Galante made a large contribution to a charitable cause sponsored by DeLuca.
Authorities said that in April 2005 at a Woodbury diner, Galante passed DeLuca a note that asked, "Do you want me to have someone pay him a visit?"
Authorities said DeLuca told Galante he wanted the offender roughed up and gave Galante the name and address of the alleged abuser.
The beating never happened. Prosecutors, who recovered the note in a search of Galante's home, said they stopped it by parking a police car in front of the Galante associate who was to deliver the beating.
Hugh Keefe, Galante's attorney, said the charge seemed "like much ado about nothing."
"I hope (DeLuca) takes it to trial and wins, because it sounds like a stretch to me," Keefe said.
Neither DeLuca nor authorities identified the relative who was allegedly being abused.
The misdemeanor charge has a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a fine of $2,000.
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Associated Press writer Pat Eaton-Robb in Rocky Hill contributed to this report.
Wow, sounds like right out of an episode of the Sopranos.
What is a conspiracy to commit threating????? Sounds like bad English to me.
It is. Galante has been watched for a long time. Galante ran the Waste Management Company in CT. Galante under house arrest by the Fed’s.
DeLuca and Galante ~
I hear ya, the wording is kind of weird.. but..
State and federal authorities said Senate Minority Leader Louis DeLuca in 2005 sought help from James Galante, a Danbury trash hauler currently awaiting trial on 72 counts of tax fraud, racketeering, threatening and extortion.
“When you approach someone who is alleged to be a member of organized crime or affiliated with organized crime and you ask for this help, and you slip a note to them in a diner as opposed to even having a conversation, I think it’s fair to draw an inference that you don’t exactly have the best of intentions,” U.S. Attorney Kevin O’Connor said Friday.
That was quick. If he was a Democrat, they'd never mention his political affiliation.
And doesn't DeLuca know that only Democrats are allowed to be corrupt?
I find it easier when they do not mention affiliation, i always know that it is democrat. But always nice to know when republicans are being less than honorable.
Now if media really wanted to mess with readers they would not mention either parties affiliation.
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