what up wit connecticut mayors?

east haven and of course hartford's own

oh yesssssssssssssssssssss

arrest his ass! the king of the city is (i hope with all my heart and soul) going down. besides a general dislike of him, i think he really DOES think he's king of the city. the last straw was anointing himself as overlord of the board of ed. hey eddie YOU GOTTA GO. to the good peeps of hartford, this AIN'T providence and eddie AIN'T buddy cianci. why do you keep voting for him?


Perez To Be Arrested Again

By

Jeffrey B. Cohen

UPDATE: Perez says he will not resign, he will fight the charges against him, and that "the truth is on my side."

A state court judge has signed a warrant to arrest Mayor Eddie A. Perez, Perez's attorney Hubert Santos said today.

"I can confirm that a warrant has been issued for the mayor's arrest in connection with allegations involving former state Rep. Abraham Giles," Santos said. "He's going to complete his term as mayor."

Perez and Santos are holding a news conference today at 5:30 p.m.
John J. Kelly, Giles' attorney, would not say whether his client would be arrested. "I will be able to say something when something official happens," Kelly said.

Kelly has previously said in a document filed with the state Supreme Court that the grand
juror investigating the mayor had found probable cause that his client - who he did not name
- had committed two crimes........

When will enough be enough?
By

Helen Ubinas

For all the rumors that El Jefe was going to resign before being rearrested -- and man have those rumors been swirling -- it turns out that so far, it's nothing but wishful thinking.

In one of the shortest press conferences I've ever attended, Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez said he wasn't going anywhere because "the truth is on my side."

My question, whose truth? But I digress.
Here are some of the mayor's more telling statements :
"Let me be clear: I will not resign.

"I am confident that I will be acquitted of all charges and my reputation restored."

"I will continue to serve the citizens of Hartford as their mayor and continue to make Hartford a better place for all of us."
.............

dominick dunne, native son, died yesterday as well

his sister-in-law joan didion is one of my favorite writers. i liked dominick as well. his style was different than joan's of course. the subject matter was different as well (although when you think about it, WAS it really????). this is a good write up. there are a few things in here i didn't know (stage manager for howdy doody?). and griffin's (his son) performance in after hours was nothing short of genius)


Writer Found Fame in Celebrity-Crime Tales

By Matt Schudel

Washington Post Staff Writer

Dominick Dunne, 83, a novelist and journalist who chronicled true-crime tales of the rich and infamous, including O.J. Simpson and Claus von Bulow, and in turn became a celebrity in his own right, died Aug. 26 at his home in New York City. He had bladder cancer.

As a reporter for Vanity Fair magazine, Mr. Dunne was perhaps the country's foremost chronicler of crimes among the privileged. He developed his journalistic specialty in a painfully personal way, when Tina Brown, the newly installed editor of the magazine, asked Mr. Dunne to cover the 1983 Los Angeles trial of a man charged with killing a promising young actress. The actress was Mr. Dunne's 22-year-old daughter, Dominique Dunne........

Celebrity Author And Hartford Native Dominick Dunne Dies At Age 83

By OWEN McNALLY Special to The Courant

Dominick Dunne, a celebrated chronicler of the crimes of the rich and famous and a best-selling novelist who skyrocketed to celebrity status through his vivid, caustic, openly partisan and dishy coverage of the infamous O.J. Simpson murder trial, died Wednesday at his home in Manhattan.

Dunne, who had been battling bladder cancer, was 83.

The Hartford native, who kept a home in Hadlyme, grew up in a large, prominent and wealthy Irish-Catholic family in West Hartford. He found success with such novels as "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles" and "A Season in Purgatory." But it was his brilliant, controversial, highly readable coverage of the Simpson "trial of the century" for Vanity Fair that transformed him in 1995 into a bona fide, red-hot celebrity.

His owlish, oval-framed glasses, shock of gray hair, diminutive stature (maybe not quite 5-foot-6 or so), feisty presence, often rumpled apparel and smart, razor-sharp commentary made Dunne a hot product on the cool medium of TV.........

pic: FILE - In this Sept. 23, 2008 file photo, celebrity crime writer Dominick Dunne, left, looks at his son Griffin Dunne during O.J. Simpson's trial in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, Pool) (Jae C. Hong - AP)

i grew up in the north end

well, we lived there until i was nine. it was the proverbial melting pot. there were italians, poles, jews, catholics, protestants, hispanics, blacks, asians. really, MANY religions, MANY nationalities. we lived on clark street in a six family home my grandparents (mother's parents) owned. my grandparents lived next door in a one family home. my grandfather had a grape arbor, rhurbarb around his garage, peach trees, cherry trees (sweet and sour), apple trees (green and red) and plums. there may have been more, but i can't recall. he also had a wonderful flower garden (as did my father's parents in glastonbury. they had apple trees too, but mostly had garden vegetables. lots and lots of beans. all sorts of italian beans of all sorts of colors. my favorites were the white and red striped ones). the north end was a beautiful place. a place of wonder. the house i grew up in isn't there any more. the school i went to, st. michael's is. not sure it's still st. michael's though. i think some catholic workers live there or around there, so it just might still be catholic

anyway, this column by helen ubinas reminded me of my childhood:


DISPATCHES FROM GARDEN STREET
Holding The Family Together

Helen Ubiñas

Mattie Laird bought her home at 643-645 Garden St. in 1968 — back when people could walk to nearby factory jobs, when rooted Jewish families still lived here and a home on the street went for just over $18 grand.

It was a fortune back then, of course.

But even after her husband left, Laird did whatever it took to hold onto the three-family home, juggling a job at the old Colt factory, another at a nursing home.

Always, two and three jobs to pay the bills and keep her children in the house that four generations still call home.

"Whatever I did, it was better than farm work in South Carolina," Laird said, laughing. "Now that was hard work."

Her daughter, Donna Yvette Jackman, still lives here.

As does her grandson, 19-year-old Clayton Jackman.

And her great-grandchildren, Chevaughn Robinson, 8, and Michael Robinson, 10.

pic: Four generations in the same house on Garden Street started with Mattie Laird, 71, center, when she bought her family home in 1968. With her are her daughter, Donna Yvette Jackman, at left, and her grandson, Clayton Jackman, right. Her two great-grandsons, who also live with her, are Chevaughn Robinson, 8, second from left, and Michael Robinson, 10, second from right. (RICK HARTFORD / HARTFORD COURANT / August 3, 2009)

yet ANOTHER stupid connecticut criminal

do we breed them here or what?

Bumbling Crook Puts Down Gun, Loses The Loot
Bowtie Cinema employee's quick thinking prevented robbery

By MICHELLE DEVIVO

It could've been the scene from a movie, complete with a bumbling crook: The scene was the Bowtie Cinema in Hartford.

A suspect walked through the front door, entering the lobby with a handgun drawn, demanding money.

When one of the employees went to open the register, the suspect put the gun on the counter so he could grab the loot. That's when the employee grabbed the gun off the counter..........

a shout out to jumoke academy school

the website for jumoke academy isn't functioning yet. check back soon and see if it's up and running
for now, here's a little blurb

as you know, it's black history month. one of the events at work to celebrate and bring awareness to our 'campus' (i hate using corporate words but hey, that's how it is) was bringing some of the jumoke kids in. they have a flag parade (i believe they said they've had it for 8 years, but i could be mistaken). they also brought one of their choirs who sang two songs. the school is for k-8 and it looked like there was quite a mix of all of those ages. they had several flags from south africa to jamaica to ethiopia to puerto rico to portugal (i think there were 27 flags. somewhere around there). they had one flag bearer per flag and one speaker per flag. the speaker told us what their particular flags (colors and/or symbols usually) stood for. i'll tell you they did a GREAT job. i sure as heck couldn't memorize what those kids did. even the tiny ones kicked some serious butt.

thank you students at jumoke academy! i LOVED it

bye mayor mike

i knew him. not well, but i did know him. i NEVER saw mike without a smile on his face. i never saw him NOT say hello to people. the man was one of THE BEST schmoozers i have ever seen in my entire life. you could just tell how much he enjoyed being out and about. greeting people, talking, telling jokes.

i never heard him quiet either. the man COULD and DID tell a mean tale. he once told me his mother (or his mother's family. not sure it was long ago) had something to do with opening the first and last tavern. don't know if it is true or not, but hell, when he told it, it sounded good to me!

MIKE PETERS, 1948-2009

'Mayor Mike' Peters Dies At 60; Struggled With Liver Damage
By EDMUND MAHONY The Hartford Courant

Mike Peters, the wise-cracking fireman who, over four terms as mayor, helped lift Hartford from a political, financial and crime-ridden funk, died just before 8 p.m. Sunday following a struggle with liver failure, family members said. He was 60.Peters had undergone a nearly eight-hour surgery last October to remove his cirrhosis-damaged liver and replace it with a healthy one. He had done well with the new liver, but developed complications with his kidneys. By Nov. 20, he was back in intensive care, and his doctors were considering a kidney transplant once he regained strength.During his time in office, from 1993 to 2001, Peters repeatedly was elected to serve as Hartford's last weak, or ceremonial, mayor. Armed with a revision to the city charter, his successor, Eddie Perez, would eventually gethat Peters always wanted but never had: Strong mayoral authority to shape the city's agenda.But powerless or not, Peters had limitless enthusiasm and he hurled it at his ceremonial office with great effect. Armed with only his personality, a not inconsequential weapon, he reinvigorated a city that, during the 1980s, seemed perched endlessly on the dismal brink of yet another failure................

Timeline: Important Dates In Peters' Life

The Hartford Courant

picture: In this 1998 photo, Hartford Mayor Mike Peters makes a joke as he speaks at a news conference at the state Capitol in Hartford. At left, behind Peters, are M. Jodi Rell, then the lieutenant governor, and then-Gov. John Rowland. (BOB CHILD / AP / March 19, 1998)

i never under stood this

phenomenon. as usual, Helen Ubiñas writes a spot on piece.

i want to add, this is just NOT happening in the black community. it happens in all communities. look at whitey bulger. look at the ey-talians

Telling The Cops Isn't An Easy Call

Helen Ubiñas
The second time, she was frantic.

We'd met years earlier, when I'd written a column about mothers trying to protect one of society's biggest long shots: black sons. She was unluckier than most; she was trying to raise four boys and had already lost one when he was shot and killed in Hartford.

And now here she was, calling me years later about another son, hoping I could somehow better her odds.
Just a few weeks earlier, he'd come home holding his mouth, blood gushing through his fingers. He'd been pistol-whipped by another boy who was after a mutual friend but turned on her son instead.

Call the police, she demanded.

No way, he said. He was no snitch.

She could barely contain herself; that insipid snitching code was why her son's murder remains unsolved. As a cruel sidebar, one of the young men rumored responsible is buried in the same cemetery.
..................

we're callous savages

we just let this man lay in the street after being slammed with a car. what does the mayor have to say about THIS? of course after nick carbone got beaten to within an inch of his life all perez had to say was generally the crime stats in hartford were down. he didn't decry what happened.

to the family and friends of angel arce torres, i hope justice will be served.


Video shows bystanders ignoring hit-and-run victim
HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT - Police released chilling surveillance video of a hit-and-run accident in hopes of catching the unidientified driver who ran down a 78-year-old pedestrian, paralyzing him, and to show the callousness of bystanders who did nothing to help.
The gripping one-minute video shows the violent May 30 accident and bystanders' apparent lack of sympathy. No one rushes to Angel Arce Torres' aid, and no one bothers to stop traffic as Torres lays motionless in the street.
In the video, released by police Wednesday, Torres walks in the two-way street at 5:45 p.m. after buying milk at a local grocery. He is struck by a dark Honda that was chasing a tan Toyota. Both cars dart down a side street as Torres crumples to the pavement.
Several cars pass Torres as a few people stare from the sidewalk. Some approach Torres, but most stay put until a police cruiser responding to an unrelated call arrives on the scene...........

we CANNOT let this close. we CANNOT let this fall into disrepair. we just can't. there HAS to be a corporation out there that can and will help

This Time, Rumors of Demise May Be True

By ALISON LEIGH COWAN

HARTFORD — It was here in the third-floor billiard room where America’s greatest humorist used to hole up when the bustle of his house, and the nursery one flight below, became too great, leaving strict orders not to be disturbed.

Seated at a desk tucked behind the billiards table, he wrote and rewrote in longhand such masterpieces as “Huckleberry Finn,” often beseeching his editors to stop cleaning up his language and restore the earthier vernacular he preferred.
But now the fanciful, three-story confection that was built by Mark Twain in 1874 at the height of his success may be forced to close because it is running out of money.
In a reversal of fortune that seems ripped from the pages of Twain’s classic “The Prince and the Pauper,” the nonprofit organization that has long run the 14,000-square-foot house as a museum told its trustees last month that it was “facing significant challenges” that could force it to shut down............

Janet Durrans for The New York Times

Twain built the fanciful house at 351 Farmington Avenue in Hartford at the height of his success. It cost $40,000.

i didn't know about this

and even if i did, i don't know that i could live on $3.00 to $4.00 of food a day. i spend that much on coffee. i'm not being flippant. one just doesn't realize people DO have to live on $4.00 worth of food a day. i will remember that

I'm One Of The Lucky – My Hunger Ends Tuesday
Susan Campbell
Hartford's monthlong Food Stamp Project ends Tuesday, and that can't come too soon for me.For a few days or all month, project participants agree to live on $3 to $4 of food a day, roughly what a food-stamp recipient can expect these days. This is the second year for the Charter Oak Cultural Center exercise. Rabbi Donna Berman, executive director, dreamed it up as a way to make hunger more real to citizens of one of the country's richest states. Yes, people go hungry here. All around the state, clergy urged their congregations to participate, a couple of high school classes signed on, as did the entire staff at End Hunger CT — all without registering formally. "I think," said Berman, "this is bigger than we know." Last year, word spread, and all over the country, people participated, including the governor of Oregon and several members of Congress.This year, the center partnered with regional anti-hunger organizations such as Foodshare Inc., End Hunger CT as well as their recipient charity, Hands On Hartford, the former Center City Churches...........

if i make it to 80

i hope i can be as conscientious as jim barron and caroline bridgeman-rees. of course, there were all ages present at the protest. of course i shouldn't wait until i'm 80 to be conscientious, moral and patriotic.

Protesters gather for fifth anniversary of Iraq war
By DAVE COLLINS
Five people were arrested Wednesday for blocking the front door of a federal courthouse during a protest to mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.Among the five were Jim Barron, 80, of New Haven and his minister, the Rev. Kathleen McTigue. Also arrested were Caroline Bridgeman-Rees, 80, of Hamden and father and daughter Mark and Keely Colville of New Haven. Police charged the five with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. They were led to police cruisers amid applause from about 100 other protesters gathered on the sidewalk.Barron has participated in protests for decades, but never risked a trip to jail. He opposed the war from the beginning and has written letters of protest to Congress, but his feelings intensified while hearing the names of the war dead read each week in his church.The final straw, he said, was reading an article about U.S. soldiers who suffered permanent brain damage in Iraq.........

Five Arrested In Iraq War Protest
By HILDA MUÑOZ And NOMAAN MERCHANT Courant Staff Reporters
A protest Wednesday by roughly 200 clergy members, religious activists and citizens marking the five-year anniversary of the United States invasion of Iraq started with prayer and song and ended with the arrest of five protesters in Hartford.

The protesters had blocked an entrance to the federal building in Hartford.

Keeley Colville, 17, her father Mark Colville, James Barron, 80, Caroline Bridgman-Rees, 85, and Rev. Kathleen McTigue were taken into custody. Bridgman-Rees and Barron were released on a promise to appear. Keeley Colville was issued a $500 bond. Her father and McTigue were each issued a $1,000 bond............


ON THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE START OF THE IRAQ WAR, an interfaith coalition gathered to oppose the war in Hartford. The rally, organized by the New Haven-based group Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice, ended at the Federal Building, where five people were arrested on trespassing charges for blocking the entrance to the building in protest. Hartford police help up 85-year-old Caroline Bridgeman-Reese before arresting her. At right is Jim Barron, who was also arrested. (SHANA SURECK / March 19, 2008)

today at 5:30

barack obama at the xl (CIVIC CENTER) center. doors open at 3:30 and it's FREE AND OPEN TO ALL. you can just show up!

Details Of Democratic Visits Announced
Two Of Three Events Open To The Public
................ "Stand for Change" rally in Hartford will feature Sen. Barack Obama at the XL Center, formerly the Hartford Civic Center. Accompanying Obama on stage will be Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy and Connecticut Reps. John Larson, D-1st, Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd, and Chris Murphy, D-5th.Doors to the XL Center open at 3:30 p.m., and the program is scheduled to begin at 5:30. The event is free and open to the public. Reservations are unnecessary. For more information call 860-729-4632 or visit http://www.barackobama.com...........

a dios

LA PALOMA SABANERA

it closes tomorrow. i didn't know about that until i read this story. i SHOULD have seen it coming.

my office was just down the street from la paloma. however, we moved from hartford to windsor and i've not been in the old hood in a bit.

if you can, why don't you stop and say goodbye (AND more importantly THANK YOU)

A Place For Everyone
La Paloma Sabanera Will Be Missed

By SUSAN CAMPBELL Courant Staff Writer

La Paloma Sabanera, which closes Friday, was a lot of things, but it was never your regular coffeehouse/bookstore.It wasn't that the staff — led by affable co-owner Luis Edgardo Cotto — knew your favorite coffee. Nor was it the public art that decorated the walls inside and out, or the jazz concerts, movie nights, poetry readings and open mikes.La Paloma — ironically, named for an endangered pigeon found in Puerto Rico — was one of the few places in Hartford — maybe in all of Connecticut — where the clientele was mixed. Opened in mid-2004 by the Cottos — Luis and his sisters, Carmen, Cinthia, Leticia and Melanie — the small shop was home to neighborhood children doing homework in the lending library upstairs, city activists intent on changing the status quo, city politicos intent on preserving it, and a rabble of others who found the Yauco Selecto coffee strong, the music bracing and the company challenging.....

picture: LA PALOMA SABANERA owner Luis Cotto (center, in T-shirt), says goodbye to, from left, Glenn Geathers, state Rep. Kevin Roldan and Jose Rodriguez. (SHANA SURECK / December 24, 2007)

i lived rather close to griswold drive

if the doctor abused some neighborhood kids (in the 60s and 70s) i am certain i may know some. this happens all of the time and i know many times children are NOT believed. as it turns out this was the case here. oh the doctor had his hand slapped all right but NO punishment. and let's see here. saint francis hospital bitches and moans about dispensing birth control AND the morning after pill (let's say for a RAPE) YET THEY TRIED (AND I BELIEVE SUCCEEDED) to have a further delving into the doctor (by the feds) stopped. what the f**k is wrong with this country? we protect a tiny little cell but we don't protect a full formed ACTUAL HUMAN CHILD? wth

to those that were molested by dr reardon (or anyone else), you are no longer victims, you are survivors.
Victims Come Forward After 50,000 Child Pornography Slides Found
At least 10 victims have come forward to police after more than 50,000 slides of child pornography were found in a West Hartford home that once belonged to a prominent doctor.
Police are now working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to identify the victims in the images.
Police said evidence shows that the slides belonged to Dr. George Reardon, who practiced medicine at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center for over 30 years, serving as Chief of Endocrinology. Reardon died in 1998.
The slides were found when the new owners of Reardon’s home on Griswold Drive began renovating the basement and removing paneling. Reardon had lived in the Griswold Drive home for roughly 20 years. The family currently living in the home is the second owner since Reardon lived there.
A secret storage area was found filled with slides and video of child pornography.
Police said there were about 50,000 35 mm slides. There were also more than 100 8 mm video reels. Police said these were photos Reardon is believed to have taken..........

Police: Former Doctor Had Child Porn Stash
By DANIEL P. JONES AND HILDA MUÑOZ The Hartford Courant
................Reardon practiced medicine at St. Francis for 30 years. He resigned in 1993 after accusations that he had taken advantage of youngsters in his care since he was a medical student in the 1950s.The first two complaints to the state medical board were filed in 1987, but the state brought no charges against him until 1993, when the number of complaints had climbed to four. During the intervening years, neither the state nor the hospital moved to restrict his practice or to take precautions to protect young patients.................

i personally am ALL FOR

quieting down both horns and music. let's say i'm at the half door let's say i'm outside. let's say that light (sisson and farmington avenues) is a mess. hey peeps if you get off 84 (exit 46) DON'T take a right to sisson and farmington. go down capital OR boulevard. IT'S QUICKER. i swear to you. if you don't heed my sage advice and take a right onto sisson DO NOT EFFING BEEP AT THE LIGHT AT THE CORNER OF SISSON AND FARMINGTON. IT'S A SHORT LIGHT. IT'S A BAD INTERSECTION. i don't want to hear you. KNOCK IT THE HELL OFF. let's say ALL sorts of honking goes on AND all sorts of HORRID LOUD MUSIC (what the hell are people thinking? i sure don't want to listen to their shite. i have my own BUT i'm courteous. i don't blare. how DARE they take up MY space with their bass speakers. it's so invasive and so rude.

Trying to keep the noise down in Hartford
by News Channel 8's Bob Wilson
Hartford (WTNH) _ Honking cars and loud music are just some of the sounds heard in the city of Hartford and tonight a public hearing was attended by residents begging for reprieve against the constant barrage of noise.
It was standing room only at Hartford City Hall as folks got their chance to sound off about the noise. Hyaciath Yennie says she has called the police more times than she can remember to complain.
"We are well into triple digits," Yennie said.
The City Council is looking to make a change to the current noise ordinance. Right now when officers are called to a noise complaint they have to measure the decibel level 100-feet away from the source using a noise meter. ......

an experiment in avocado art

sounds kind of cool to me. we'll see........
Finding Art In Avocados
Hartford Artist Invites Help To Create A Living Sculpture From A Forest Of Plants
By JOANN KLIMKIEWICZ Courant Staff Writer
In the midst of the downtown dinner rush, the man stood in the candlelit dimness of the Mexican restaurant last week with a white plastic bucket and this unorthodox request: Can I have your avocado pits?On the spectrum of donation requests asked of Hartford's Agave Grill, Victor Pacheco's plea for pits had to be among the most unusual. Food platters. Monetary contributions. Restaurant manager Jonathan Sablon was accustomed to those kinds of community inquiries. Trash-bound avocado seeds, naked of their soft green flesh? That was a first."We go through so many avocados in a day. Well over 100," says Sablon. "We figured it's not that hard to save them for him. So we thought we'd help him out."..........
.............To find out more about the Avocado Tree Project, or to volunteer to grow a plant, visit the artist's website: www.webspawner.com/users/vpacheco/index.html. Or contact him at vpacheco62@hotmail.com.......................

the witching hour

salem is 'famous' for it's witch trials and executions. connecticut had the FIRST witch execution by the way

if you're in the hartford area, why not stop and see this performance. it runs through saturday

When Fear Reigns
A Performance Focuses On The Lessons Of Hartford's Witch Hunts
By MATT EAGAN Courant Staff Writer
Addie Avery was 12 when history came alive for her.The dusty recitation of facts and figures gave way to a vivid story about people trapped in a nightmare.One of those people was her nine-times great grandmother, Mary Sanford, who was executed as a witch in Hartford in 1662. As Salem, Mass., prepares for a month in which it will make money off its legacy of hanging 19 young women by their necks until they were dead, Avery and the Judy Dworin Performance Project are attempting to bring Hartford's history to life for the rest of us.Dworin has created "The Witching Hour," a production that combines theater, puppetry, dance and stubborn, sober history.The show, which starts today and runs through Saturday at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, is part of a monthlong collaboration with the Connecticut Antiquarian & Landmarks Society (soon to be Connecticut Landmarks) and Eastern Connecticut State University that seeks to explore the trials and their legacy in greater depth..............

so does this mean if my name was pilar maria aureliana buendias

i would have to have PROOF of american citizenship BEFORE judge john downey would hear my case?

would he demand proof of my american citizenship BEFORE hearing my case if my name was suzie phelps?

i think we ALL know the answer
what i don't understand is WHY is he still being questioned. obviously he is NOT a fit for the position

Confirmation hearing continued for controversial judge

by Chief Capitol Correspondent Mark DavisPosted Aug. 21, 2007
Hartford (WTNH) _ The nominee for the state Appellate Court fielded questions this afternoon from state lawmakers during his confirmation hearing, but will be continued as lawmakers review new information.
Judge John Downey, 56, has been on the Superior Court bench for over six years and the things he has said on and off the bench are coming back to haunt him.......
....But Downey has bigger problems. In a court transcript of a wrongful death case from last year, Downey questions a lawyer:
DOWNEY: What was the person's name?LAWYER: Juan Ricardo Brito was the full name. DOWNEY: I presume he had all his documentation as to his being legal here in the U.S.?LAWYER: I believe so. That hasn't been raised as an issue by anyone. DOWNEY: Well, it might be an issue in Judge Downey's court because I believe that no one has a right to sue in the State of Connecticut court system unless they're authorized to sue. .............
..........Under questioning today, Downey said he was aware of the Supreme Court ruling and was just playing verbal intellectual tennis with the lawyer.
"It was just an intellectual position I took with another bright, able attorney to see what his response would be before we launched into the rest of the case.
But lawmakers on the committee say they have other transcripts from other trials. One divorce case Downey refused to hear because the couple did not have documentation of citizenship. ..........

he's trying to dance but guess what? downey NEVER paid the piper!

Nominee In Doubt
Apparent Discrepancy Stalls Downey's Confirmation

By MARK PAZNIOKAS Courant Staff Writer
The nomination of Judge John R. Downey to the Appellate Court stalled after legislators questioned whether Downey had misled them earlier Tuesday by downplaying a suggestion he made last year that illegal immigrants had no right to use the courts.The legislature's judiciary committee postponed action on Downey's confirmation after obtaining two transcripts in which the judge, in 2002, emphatically stated that illegal immigrants have no right to the state's civil courts. Legislators say he ignored case law and the state constitution.The transcripts raise questions about his truthfulness and his command of the constitution and the law, said the committee's Democratic co-chairmen, Sen. Andrew McDonald of Stamford and Rep. Michael P. Lawlor of East Haven............

ugliness-VERY early morning june 29 2007