Here's the latest on the man who brought down former Minority Leader and disgraced Republican State Senator Louis "Looney" DeLuca.
A Danbury businessman arrested last year in a federal probe of mob influence in the trash industry pleaded not guilty today to new charges of conspiring to commit kidnapping and arson to intimidate competitors.
James Galante was indicted last summer along with 28 others on charges of participating in a scheme to drive up trash rates. He was indicted earlier this month on additional charges of conspiring to commit arson and kidnapping by damaging a competitor's truck and kidnapping the driver at gunpoint in 1992.
Galante, 54, of New Fairfield, pleaded not guilty to those and other new charges. Galante now faces 93 counts, including racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, extortion, mail and wire fraud, and witness tampering.
Prosecutors said the scheme forced customers to pay more for trash pickup. Twenty-one have since pleaded guilty.
The new indictment includes additional charges against the eight defendants who have not pleaded guilty and charges one person not named in the original indictment. The additional charges include allegations that some of the defendants tried to bribe politicians and made campaign contributions through straw donors. The politicians have not been identified.
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On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
The amended complaint states that plaintiffs sought to remedy the continued discriminatory and unauthorized enforcement of federal immigration laws against the Latino residents of the City of Danbury by Danbury's mayor and its police department.
Plaintiffs allege that the arrests violated their Fourth Amendment rights and the Connecticut Constitution because defendants conducted the arrests without valid warrants, in the absence of exigent circumstances, and without probable cause to believe that plaintiffs were engaged in unlawful activity. In addition, plaintiffs allege that defendants improperly stopped, detained, investigated, searched and arrested plaintiffs. Plaintiffs also allege that defendants violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights when they intentionally targeted plaintiffs, and arrested and detained them on the basis of their race, ethnicity and perceived national origin. Plaintiffs raise First Amendment, Due Process and tort claims.
Plaintiffs request declaratory relief, damages and attorneys fees.
Here's the latest on the man who brought down former Minority Leader and disgraced Republican State Senator Louis "Looney" DeLuca.
On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
