Andy Thibault

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Two Teams of Investigators,
Two Versions of the Same Incident
By Stacey Stowe
New York Times
Sunday October 3, 2004
page CT3


   The incident has emerged as an emblem of the tension between the office of the United States attorney in Connecticut and lawyers for defendants and those under scrutiny in the high-profile investigation of the state's highest office.

   Private investigators working for the Tomasso family say, amid threats of jail, that their surveillance equipment, address books and notes were seized by federal agents. One agent is said to have pulled one of the investigators from his car, thrown him to the ground and shoved him across the hood of his vehicle.

That is one side of the story, a version of a hotly contested episode that occurred on Sept. 3 in downtown New Hartford, between F.B.I. agents working on the federal investigation into state-contract steering in the Rowland administration and lawyers for one of the defendants.

Federal authorities tell a different story. They claim the private investigators were harassing Lawrence Alibozek, a man who is expected to be a key witness in the case. And although they admit the equipment was confiscated, no one, they say, "was mistreated or abused."

Since last December, when former Gov. John G. Rowland disclosed that his lakeside cottage had been refurbished with the help of state contractors [,] the intervening months brought the legislative impeachment inquiry of Mr. Rowland, his subsequent resignation on July 1 and the various meetings of a grand jury, which convened more than a year ago.

The answer to what has become a favorite parlor game (if and when federal prosecutors would strike) came on Sept. 23, when a federal grand jury returned an indictment of Peter N. Ellef, Mr. Rowland's former co-chief of staff, his son, Peter Ellef II, who owns a landscaping business, and William A. Tomasso, a prominent state contractor, on charges of racketeering, bribery, and money laundering. All three men pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Mr. Tomasso provided money, gold and other benefits from Champagne to airline tickets to Mr. Ellef and his son, to Lawrence Alibozek, Mr. Rowland's former deputy chief of staff who has been cooperating with the government since March 2003, and to "others" in exchange for lucrative state contracts. Prosecutors are seeking criminal convictions and the return of at least $11 million.

News of the incident in New Hartford was first reported by the Associated Press on Sept. 20. On Sept. 24, at the arraignment of the three indicted men, Nora Dannehy, the lead prosecutor in the case, made an oblique reference to it as an ongoing issue before United States Magistrate Donna F. Martinez. "It is the government's position that there has been harassment of a witness by private investigators," Ms. Dannehy said.

On Sept. 3, private investigators were working for Murzin-Thibault Investigative Group, a Litchfield firm founded last spring by a retired Hartford police detective, Richard Murzin and Andy Thibault, a 51-year-old journalist and adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Hartford. The firm was retained by Jack Fornaciari, a lawyer from Washington, D.C., who is representing Mr. Tomasso.

Mr. Thibault, who had arrived on the scene to find his two investigators stripped to the waist, declined to be interviewed for this article on the advice of his lawyer, Philip Russell of Greenwich.

Mr. Fornaciari said on Sept. 3, the investigators had Mr. Alibozek, a New Hartford resident, under surveillance. "I'm trying to establish that he's unstable," Mr. Fornaciari said.

One investigator, in a parked car, was recording Mr. Alibozek and his wife Leah, while the two were inside Chatterly's a restaurant and bar, on the town's main street. A second investigator sat in another parked car.

 Two or three unmarked cars approached the private investigators' cars, blocking one of the them. Two men and a woman emerged, one that Mr. Fornaciari said was identified by one of the investigators as Michael J. Clark, a veteran F.B.I. agent and the one who is supervising the corruption investigation. Yet the men did not identify themselves, Mr. Fornaciari said.

A male agent, who has not been identified, pulled one of the investigators out of his car, threw him to the ground and then pushed him on the hood of the vehicle, according to Mr. Fornaciari, who read from the statements of the investigators during a phone interview. He said a male agent rifled through the cars, pulling out notebooks and equipment, while the female agent took notes.

When Mr. Thibault arrived and began questioning the agents, he was ordered to go across the street, where he subsequently called Ms. Dannehy, the lead prosecutor.
After several hours, the agents suspended their search, and left the scene with the investigators' equipment.

Although "no comment" is the de rigeur response of federal prosecutors during pending investigations, the office of the United States Attorney released a statement about the incident last week: "When there are reports of intimidation or harassment of witnesses in any criminal case, federal law enforcement acts expeditiously and professionally. If anyone involved in this incident or their attorneys are claiming that individuals were mistreated or abused in any way, they are not being truthful."
   
Tom Carson, a spokesman for the United State's Attorney's office, said last Tuesday that in order to establish a "Chinese wall" between prosecutors and agents working on the government corruption case and the seized material, Peter Jongbloed, a federal prosecutor who is unaffiliated with the investigation, was handling the matter.

On Wednesday, some of the material was returned to Mr. Thibault, but other material, including camera footage and notes, were not returned, according to Mr. Fornaciari. He plans to file a motion for the return of the rest of the equipment. Lisa Bull, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I., said the agency had no comment.

Lawyers for the investigators and its firm said the seized material, which was removed without a warrant, is protected by attorney-client privilege. As such, the government is barred from reviewing it.

But Mr. Fornaciari said the investigators told him the material was already reviewed at the scene by the agents.

Ellis Armistead, assistant national director of the National Association of Legal Investigators, said a similar issue arose in the Michael Jackson case when police executed a search warrant on an investigator's office. When told about the notes seized during the investigation of Mr. Alibozek, Mr. Armistead said prosecutors will probably use them.

"It's naïve to believe that the information they seized won't become part of the corruption case, if not directly then indirectly," he said. Asked now the episode could affect the trial, Mr. Fornaciari said the defense could ask the court to remove the F.B.I. agents, including their supervisor, Mr. Clark, from the case.

Harry Boardsen, a private investigator since 1981 from Pawcatuck, said the New Hartford incident was the first he heard of federal agents tangling with private investigators. But he said the Thibault group violated the first rule of private eye work. "You shouldn't be noticed," he said.

Norman Pattis, a New Haven criminal defense lawyer who like Mr. Thibault contributes to The Law Tribune, wrote a column about the incident. In his signature irreverent voice, Mr. Pattis likened the agents to "La Cosa Federalista." Reached by telephone this week, Mr. Pattis was still fuming.

"It sounds like a B movie, doesn't it?" he asked. "Feds shaking guys down?"

Mr. Pattis criticized other aspects of the corruption investigation. Federal prosecutors are using the grand jury in this investigation as "a carte blanche investigatory tool when it was designed to check their power," he said.

Hugh Keefe, a New Haven lawyer who is representing the elder Mr. Ellef, also has characterized government tactics in this investigation as harsh. For instance, neither of the lawyers for the Ellefs received courtesy calls from prosecutors that indictments were forthcoming. Federal prosecutors subpoenaed Mr. Keefe's records in order to determine who is paying the legal bills for his client. Mr. Keefe said he filed a motion to quash the subpoena. The judge in the case has sealed the proceeding, he said. (On the day of the indictment Mr. Fornaciari told a reporter that contrary to rumors, the Tomassos are not paying Mr. Ellef's legal bills.)

Mr. Keefe filed a motion, saying the records are protected by attorney-client privilege. The matter is under court review.

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