A HUGE round of thanks goes out to the fearless John Neumuller who takes time out of his schedule to video tape various meetings in Danbury...for FREE (make sure to watch Neumuller's local access show Danbury Live, Saturdays at 7PM on Comcast 23).

THIS IS A LIVE BLOG WHICH WILL BE UPDATED WITH NEW INFORMATION...

Tomorrow is D-Day for Greater Danbury's famous anti-immigrant xenophobe as John McGowan will learn how much time he will serve in prison for sexual assault.

The 2007 mayoral candidate and co-founder of the anti-immigrant hate group United States Citizens for Immigration and Law Enforcement, was convicted of first degree sexual assault in August of this year and is scheduled to be sentenced at Litchfield Superior Court at 9:30 AM.

I will be on-hand to provide a special LIVE BLOG of the sentencing as it happens in real time (thankfully, Litchfield Superior Court allows the use of laptops computers in the courtroom). Since I've been to most of the proceedings (more than any other reporter who has covered the trial), I'll FINALLY give my take on the entire trial from the beginning and why McGowan's own boneheaded stupidity probably resulted in him losing his freedom.

9:30 PM: The Waterbury Rep-Am did a second article on McGowan's sentencing.

8:55 AM: Apparently, it seems like McGowan has trouble obeying court instructions...

In August, after being convicted of rape, McGowan took to the air to talk about his court case and said the following.

"I'm not going anywhere," McGowan said on Comcast Cable Channel 23. "I'm going to keep doing my show. I'm not going to change what I'm about.

"I don't care what the jury says, guilty or not," he said. "I'm going to keep coming here. If you don't like it, tough."

During yesterday's sentencing, the Judge told McGowan the following...

In addition to the four years in prison and 10 years parole, Ginocchio said he would suggest to parole that McGowan be required to register as a sex offender for life, abide by sex offender evaluation and treatment, obey a full no-contact protective order protecting the victim, and not mention the case or victim on any cable access show he does.

Here's what McGowan said last night hours after being released on 100,000 appeal bail.

McGowan: "We're here live on October 21st and like I stated a while back, I'm not going anywhere"

[Co-Host] Kevin Gallagher: Good.

McGowan: ...like I stated a while back I'm not going anywhere.

Given the serious of his situation (and the fact that he shoiuld count his lucky stars for being free on bail pending appeal) maybe McGowan's attorney should tell the convicted rapist to his off-handed references about his court case on TV could land him back in prison.

10.22.11, 8:30 AM: The Register Citizen has more details on the sentencing hearing...

More than half a dozen people spoke on Bethel resident John McGowan’s behalf in Litchfield Superior Court Friday in an attempt to get him a light sentence following his first-degree sexual assault conviction in August. McGowan is a former Danbury mayoral candidate and Bethel public access television host.

The conviction carries a minimum two-year jail sentence, with enough years of parole to make a total sentence of 10 years.

Judge James P. Ginocchio gave McGowan a slightly higher sentence of four years in prison followed by 10 years of special parole, which fell halfway between the minimum sentence and State’s Attorney David Shannon’s recommendation of six years in jail with 14 years special parole.

Shannon told the judge he believed McGowan should get more than the minimum sentence, saying he believes rape to be one of the most serious crimes there is, short of murder or harming a child.

The victim, referred to as Jane Doe, read a prepared letter stressing the difficulty she and her family have had dealing with the case over the past three years, saying that McGowan “took her humanity.”

She went on to ask that McGowan be given the maximum amount of parole so that he would be supervised.

“I have been given a life sentence of fear,” she said.

After the prosecution rested, McGowan read his prepared statement and maintained his innocence, saying that he was raised to tell the truth, and chose to represent himself because he believed the truth would prevail.

“I never would have represented myself if it wasn’t obvious I was innocent,” he said.

Once McGowan finished, multiple friends and family members spoke on his behalf, calling him a gentle person and a useful and needed member of the community.

[...]

Several individuals were cautioned by Ginocchio to keep their statements to McGowan’s character instead of the case itself, as he had already been convicted and the facts were not in question.

After everyone spoke, Ginocchio made his remarks, saying that – unlike some of McGowan’s friends thought – his gut instinct was to believe the victim.

“I can’t imagine that she would have come up here and testified like she did unless she was telling the truth,” he said. “I believed Jane Doe, and the jury believed Jane Doe.”

In addition to the four years in prison and 10 years parole, Ginocchio said he would suggest to parole that McGowan be required to register as a sex offender for life, abide by sex offender evaluation and treatment, obey a full no-contact protective order protecting the victim, and not mention the case or victim on any cable access show he does.

The defense said they plan to appeal, and requested Ginocchio set an appellate bond, though Shannon objected. Ginocchio agreed to set a bond, and set it at $100,000 cash or surety.

7:15 PM The Waterbury Republican-American and News-Times posted their write-ups on today's proceeding.

5:30 PM: Here's more on what happened today.

* During the sentencing hearing, several people spoke for and against McGowan.

* The victim in this crime read a prepared statement in court.

* McGowan's mother spoke in support of her son.

* Several people (possibly a total of 8) also spoke in favor of McGowan.

* State Attorney wanted McGowan sentenced to six years in prison with 14 years special probation. Judge gave McGowan a lesser sentence of 4 years in prison (2 years mandatory).

* State argued against the defense attorney's recommendation for an appeal bond (which basically means that McGowan is free pending appeal). Judge ruled in favor of the defense but set McGowan's bail at 100,000 dollars (which probably means 10,000 to the bails bondsman). It's unclear if the bail has been posted yet.

* The judge ordered McGowan not to mention the victim or the case on his local access show.

Still gathering more details....reporters from several media outlets are working not the story and articles should be posted later this evening. No word on whether McGowan will be free before his live TV shows airs at 9:00 on Comcast 23 (John McGowan Presents).

5:00 PM: BREAKING NEWS...McGowan sentenced to 4 years in prison (2 years min). McGowan's attorney was able to get an appeal bond, which means the former mayoral candidate is free pending appeal. Bond was set at 100,000 dollars.

...more later.

4:00 PM: Court still in session...awaiting news from court clerk office.

3:00 PM: Awaiting word from Litchfield...news soon.

2:00 PM: From August, here's McGowan on his local access show speaking on his conviction.



12:40 PM Here's Attorney Michael Voytek's bio:

Michael graduated from Fairfield Prep in 1983, from Fairfield University in 1987, magna cum laude, and from Emory Law School in 1990, with distinction. At Emory, he was the Managing Editor of the Emory International Law Review and was published in the Emory Journal of International Affairs. Michael is admitted to practice law in the States of Connecticut, New York, Georgia and Massachusetts. He is also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court in Connecticut.

Michael started his career at Lord, Day and Lord, a Wall Street law firm in 1990. He worked principally on mergers and acquisitions matters in its New York office. After a brief stint in Boston at Goodwin Procter, Michael worked at Paul Hastings law firm in its New York and Atlanta offices for over 10 years. While at Paul Hastings, Michael acted in a General Counsel capacity for corporate entities, officers and directors and entrepreneurs in many diverse industries. After leaving Paul Hastings, from 2003 thru 2004, he bolstered the corporate practice of Goodkind Labaton in New York working on general corporate, contracts, and transactional matters such as m&a, corporate finance, securities and private equity deals. In 2005, he started the Voytek Law Firm.

In addition to his legal work, Michael is active in his community having served on a variety of charitable boards of directors (most notably on the Boy Scouts' Connecticut Yankee Council's Executive Board as its VP of Legal Affairs and on the Board of the Boys and Girls Club of Bridgeport). He also served on the Board of the Bethel Women's Recovery Center as its General Counsel. He was the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Connecticut Eagle Scout Association.

Michael is also involved with local community groups in Bridgeport - serving as Chairman of the Committee to Ungag the People, as Special Counsel to the Boys and Girls Club of Bridgeport and the Derail the Jail Committee and as general counsel to various NRZs in the City of Bridgeport. By way of additional pro bono work, he helps indigent tenants at the Security Deposit Clinic in Waterbury and Bridgeport on a monthly basis.

In his spare time, Michael makes appearances on "Bridgeport Now", a local cable news television show where he provides commentary on local and state political issues. He is also a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Roma Club and is actively involved with the New Canaan Society. Michael is proud to be an Eagle Scout.

You can also read several articles on Voytek's activities in the Bridgeport area (via Only in Bridgeport website).

09.21.11, 9:40 AM: I'm at the courthouse in Litchfield where I just learned that McGowan's sentencing has been pushed back to 2 PM.

McGowan has FINALLY retained an attorney who will probably request an appeal bond. Attorney name: Michael Voytek.

Don't know if I can stay till 2 for the sentencing but there will be several media outlets on hand to cover the event.

THIS IS A LIVE BLOG WHICH WILL BE UPDATED WITH NEW INFORMATION.

Sorry but a personal emergency kept me away from last night's debate but from what I heard, it seems like Taborsak gave the dishonest one a run for his money, complete with our mayor attempting to pull a cheap shot at the end by pulling a quote from Taborsak's Danbury 11 deposition (and this comes from a assclown whose Danbury 11 deposition exposed his laundry list of LIES and MISLEADING statements to the public).

I'm currently working on obtaining the video from the debate as I'm told there are several classic Boughton dishonest moments that I'll enjoy.

...developing.

Let me start this post off by stating that this is not personal. I've known the family that publishes the Tribuna Newspaper for many years and the following post has nothing to do with the newspaper as a whole. The rationale behind this post is to provide the public full disclosure regarding the relationship behind the members of the board at the Tribuna and Mark Boughton as well call into question the newspaper's participation in the mayoral debate.

Since the announcement of this week's mayoral debate between Mark Boughton and Lynn Taborsak, I've been very concerned over the Tribuna Newspaper's participation in the event.

In 2007, since records of campaign statements were not available electronically, I decided to create an online database of Boughton's campaign finance statements starting with his first term in office. While many in the media were focused on the illegal bundled contributions made to Boughton from James Galante, I along with the help of others examined Boughton's records and came across several disturbing campaign contributions made by the family that runs the Tribuna Newspaper going as far back as 2005.

The contributions for the '07 campaign cycle are listed below:

April 10 SEEC filing: Publisher of Tribuna (Celia Bacelar) $120 - 2/21/07 -

July 10 SEEC filing: Publisher of Tribuna (Celia Bacelar) $120 - 2/21/07

July 10 SEEC filing: Tribuna Newspaper LLC purchased a advertising slot in Mayor Boughton's program book on 06/13/07

January 10th 2008 SEEC filing/Report: Palmares, Genilson (page 7) - $1000.
This person is the husband of the publisher of the Tribuna (Celia Bacelar).

January 10th 2008 SEEC filing/Report: Angela Barbosa (daughter of Celia Bacelar and and at the time, listed as Managing Editor of the Tribuna) $100.00 on 10/27/08.

It's interesting to note that at the time and the contributions in the Jan 2008 report were made (late Oct 2007), Mayor Boughton and several members of Common Council promoted the city entering the highly controversial ICE ACCESS/287G program. Many members of the public and organizations, including the Tribina Newspaper, spoke out in opposition to the program (including Celia Bacelar's daughter/Tribuna reporter/board member Emanuela Lima who spoke in opposition to the proposal at the Oct 2007 Common Council meeting). It was also during this period where the I witnessed Bacelar ad her daughter Lima attend the open house opening of Boughton's headquarters on the corner of Main and South Street (across from CVS).

After reporting on my findings, another ethnic paper in the city, Communidade News made several mentions of the contributions. For instance, when the Tribuna sent a press release to the media announcing the formation of the anti-ICE ACCESS group, Businesses For a Better Community, Communidade News Editor (and former writer at the Tribuna) Breno da Mata sent the following reply.

From: brenodamata@XXXXXXXX.com


This press release was written by Emanuela Lima, Editor of Tribuna
Newspaper, the same group/family that helped financially Mark
Boughton's campaign.

I'm confused...

Quoting Businesses For a Better Community :

> For Immediate Release:
>
> Press Contact:
> Emanuela Lima
> 203-XXX-XXXX
> 203-XXX-XXXX
>
>
>
> Danbury Small Business Owners:
> ICE Partnership Will Hurt Our Businesses!
>
> Danbury, CT - A growing group of small business owners throughout Danbury
> are becoming more vocal in their opposition to the Common Council's support
> of an ICE Partnership. The small business owners point to the Town of
> Riverside, NJ, highlighted in a NY Times article on Sept. 26th, 2007 that
> documented the decimated downtown following strict anti-immigrant
> legislation. Business owners in Danbury, where up to 34% of the population
> is foreign born, is fearful that a partnership with ICE would lead to
> increased harassment and discrimination to Latino's regardless of their
> legal status. A community fearful of police harassment is not a good
> business environment.
>
> "An ICE partnership is bad for business," stated Wilson Hernandez, owner of
> Mitad Del Mundo Restaurant. "Who is going to want to shop downtown if they
> are scared of harassment by police?"
>
> "I am nervous that an ICE partnership will hurt my business and make it no
> longer profitable to be on Main St.," stated Minas Bakery & Deli owner
> Marcilio Fernandes. If Latin's regardless of legal status are continually
> harassed in Danbury why would I want to keep my business here?"
>
> The Town of Riverside watched as the economy plummeted. Hair Salons,
> restaurants, and corner shops that were Latino owned and catered to the
> community boarded up their business leaving Main Street. Danbury business
> owners are very weary of Danbury following Riverside's path.
>
> "I have raised my family here, I have roots in this community; I don't want
> to watch Danbury follow Riverside," stated Renata Amaral, co-owner of RM
> Insurance.
>
> Recently the town of Riverside rescinded their anti-immigrant ordinance.
> Small business owners in Danbury are hopefully the Common Council will not
> follow Riverside's path.
>
>

Instead of addressing the campaign contributions made to Boughton during the 07 cycle, the Tribuna opted to attack the messenger an statement in which it is announced that the paper would "withdrawal" support for Boughton:

TRIBUNA WITHDRAWALS ITS SUPPORT FOR MAYOR BOUGHTON


Mayor's Proposed Partnership with ICE is hurtful to the community and the local immigrant population

Danbury, CT - Since its creation in 2000, TRIBUNA NEWSPAPER has expressed its support to Danbury's mayors. From Gene Eriquez to Mark Boughton, this multi-cultural publication has worked closely with local leaders covering stories and voicing concerns of the local immigrant community.

After announcing its plans to check the legal status of the city's immigrants in 2005, TRIBUNA had several conversations with Mayor Mark Boughton expressing its opposition to his plan. Eventually, the mayor set the issue aside. TRIBUNA continued with its support for Boughton on the last election, endorsing him as the candidate with the best overall plans for the city.

Recent e-mails to the press have claimed that TRIBUNA's previous support weakens its participation in the community coalition fighting against the proposal. These e-mails were sent by a former disgruntled employee of TRIBUNA, who was fired for unethical behavior shortly after TRIBUNA was launched. This incident was well documented. But most importantly, we would like to remind all that this is not a time for bickering amongst immigrants and attacks for personal gain.

TRIBUNA is a strong voice against Boughton's proposal since it knows that the recent mayor's plans of a partnership with ICE are a true harm to the community. It makes sense for authorities to expect that illegal immigrants who committed crimes to be deported. But TRIBUNA will no longer support a mayor who would pass a plan that would also deport immigrant workers, who came to this country legally and don't have a green card because they are waiting for the conclusion of their legalization process. A plan that could take children away from good parents, divide families and close businesses owned by honest people who have contributed greatly to this city. TRIBUNA once again invites Mayor Mark Boughton to reconsider his support for this measure and its impact in this city.

Almost a year to the day when they announced their "withdrawal" of support for Boughton, campaign reports show that Barcelar's daughter/Tribuna Managing Editor/Reporter Angela Barbosa attended a fundraiser for Boughton and donated 120.000 to his campaign. Later that year, in a reversal from their 2007 declaration in which the paper withdrawal support for Boughton, the paper wrote the following endorsement of Boughton over 2009 Democratic mayoral candidate Gary Goncalves.

Tribuna Editorial, Nov 2009:

As an immigrant, I disagree with the way Mayor Mark Boughton addressed the partnership agreement with ICE in 2008. As a member of the Danbury community, however, I cannot judge a mayoral candidate's platform based only on the issue of immigration.

The reality is that during Boughton's four terms, the city saw new schools, such as Western Connecticut AIS Magnet School and Ellsworth Avenue Elementary School (formerly Roberts Avenue), newly paved roads, the new Firefighter House Engine 26 on the west side, an upgraded athletic field in Rogers Park, and a modern Police Department. The new station revitalized a sector of the city considered challenging, and lifted the morale of the police officers that today are able to work in a safe, efficient facility. All of these improvements benefit the residents who are citizens, as well as the immigrants in Danbury.

For these reasons, Tribuna is endorsing Mark Boughton for Mayor of the City of Danbury.

In response to the paper's reversal, The Communidade News had this to say (NOTE: Originally written in Portuguese, translated to English via Google Translation so the grammar is a bit off):

This week the residents of Danbury will know who will lead the city for the next two years. If the current representative of the office, Mark Boughton or his opponent, Democrat Gary Goncalves.

During the period in which the election was open, few have ventured to point out openly the possible winner. With the exception of the Brazilian community, who pushed a change to continue to hope that one day they can live in the city without fear. Fear that this was built over the past six years thanks to the dishonest and intolerant policy, focused on their own interests of the current mayor.

Gary Goncalves represented the change we needed. The Brazilians had them. But not all. Just a week before the election, the community was again the victim of its own people. One of the newspapers, they say Brazil, but that proves year after year that just uses the community will once again show their "true colors" to use an expression in English.

Official support of this journal to the current mayor proves, once again, which side they really belong. The justifications presented in an editorial is ridiculous, to say the least. It says at one point that "does not agree with the position of mayor as a partnership between police and immigration, still reinforces the support for it.
How well a friend said, it is as if a Jew would support the candidate of the Nazi party. Unbelievable!

Again opportunism and unhealthy desire to be close to the "power", speaks louder than the well-being of the community. Over the past four years, the policy of persecution and fear a reduced number of shops in Singapore a few stores, which are today for a daily sacrifice to keep the doors open. And this same newspaper, which supports the city, also called for listing them.

Contradiction? More than that, lack of character to assume that, in addition to not share the difficulties of the local merchant, still working behind the scenes, and now publicly, to make their lives worse.

Unfortunately, these same traders who place their ads in this newspaper do not realize they are funding their own bankruptcy. But how? Let me explain: in recent years the family owned this newspaper has donated significant money to the campaign of Mayor. In 2007, for example, while the community protested against the adoption of the law 287G, they donated money to the campaign of Mayor. Money left in the pocket of the entrepreneur Singapore through the site.

Everyone has the freedom to choose the way forward. But we have to have the honor to take on a public way, without double play and try, at all costs, take advantage of both sides.

To this date, although they have written numerous articles on Boughton and the municipal elections, neither the Tribuna Newspaper (in an official statement), Barcelar as Publisher, or her daughters who hold board positions at the newspaper have disclose their history of campaign contributions Boughton with the public and in my opinion, their behavior is not only wrong, but also unethical.

For this reason, the Tribuna should recuse themselves from this week's debate between Boughton and Lynn Taborsak.



...more later.