By Amanda Pinto
The New Haven Register
MADISON — The ongoing scandal in the Police Department that has left eight officers fired, suspended or facing charges comes with a hefty cost to taxpayers: $337,420 in legal fees in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
“We’re paying perhaps for the sins of the past, and the bill’s come due,” said Police Commission Chairman Emile Geisenheimer.
Add in other legal matters, such as a pending lawsuit filed by builders and property assessment appeals, town lawyers pulled in more than $534,000 in the just-concluded fiscal year, Director of Finance Dorothy Bavin said.
The figure is “multiples of what it was in previous years,” First Selectman Al Goldberg said.
Town officials budgeted $134,000 for legal expenses in the last fiscal year, Bavin said.
“Clearly, the amount of legal work on the Police Department is substantially above what it’s been perhaps ever, but certainly in recent memory, and that’s because we’ve had an extraordinary amount of things to deal with, much of which have accumulated over a number of years,” Geisenheimer said.
To pay the tab, the town moved $400,000 from contingency funds and other items, Goldberg and Bavin said.
A $300,000 special appropriation was transferred to cover the legal expenses in June, Board of Finance Chairwoman Kathy Rossini said.
Ultimately though, Goldberg said, the money is coming from taxpayers’ pockets. The legal fees were necessary to resolve what had become an unfortunate situation, he said.
“(Some officers) obviously apparently went bad,” Goldberg said. “If you accept that, and accept that the community needed to identify them, move them out, and move onward, that’s what we had to do. The selectmen encouraged the Police Commission on the path of using all legal means to identify and discharge those police officers who no longer deserve the respect of this community.”
With five former officers terminated since May 2007, and a sixth, Police Chief Paul Jakubson, on paid administrative leave, the force of about 20 officers has accrued higher-than-average overtime costs.
However, officials said, the costs are offset by the drop in salaries and benefits for the officers terminated.
Town Attorney William Clendenen Jr., who was responsible for the police legal work and some of the town’s other legal issues, charges the town $200 per hour, Bavin said.
Geisenheimer said the $337,420 may not have been paid all to Clendenen, as he has others in his office working on the case. Clendenen declined to comment.
He charges Madison less than 50 percent of his average rate because he lives in town, Geisenheimer said.
Much of the time spent on the police matters, Geisenheimer said, was accumulated when he ordered months ago that all internal and criminal investigations be directed under Clendenen’s supervision, to ensure justice would not be impeded, he said.
“I can tell you that the amount of time that has been taken has been huge,” Geisenheimer said. “(Clendenen) has had to be (at headquarters) many, many days supervising all this activity.”
The legal fees paid to Clendenen were necessary to resolve problems in the department, Geisenheimer said.
Two officers were fired after they faced administrative charges, one accused of meeting with prostitutes and the other of threatening other officers. Two more officers were fired after they were charged criminally for alleged crimes ranging from theft to threatening and worker’s compensation fraud. Those criminal cases are pending. One sergeant was fired after the commission ruled he failed to supervise the midnight shift, where many of the problems occurred.
Officials now are trying to gauge what legal expenditures might be like this fiscal year.
Lt. Michael O’Connor faces a termination hearing at the end of July. Officer Ernest J. Boggs Jr. was recently arrested on motor vehicle charges. He does not currently face departmental charges. Jakubson remains on paid leave and could potentially face a hearing.
The town has budgeted $165,000 for legal fees this year, Bavin said.
“Knowing what we know about ongoing issues, we can only hope that will be enough,” Rossini said.
Geisenheimer said he did not help arrive at the figure, and that he couldn’t comment on it because he doesn’t know how the town came up with the estimate.
Copyright 2008 The New Haven Register