Pubdate: Sun, 18 Jun 2006
Source: Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, CT)
Copyright: 2006sMediaNews Group, Inc
Contact:  http://www.connpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/574
Author: Marian Gail Brown and Bill Cummings, Staff writers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

CELL PHONES LINK FABRIZI TO SUSPECT

Mayor's Phone Records Show 13 Calls To Accused Cocaine Dealer In 04

BRIDGEPORT -- Though Mayor John M. Fabrizi said last month that he 
didn't know Shawn Fardy "personally," his cell phone records show he 
called the accused cocaine dealer at least 13 times between October 
and December 2004. It's also the same time that Fardy is caught on a 
FBI wiretap placing a cocaine order "in code" to his accused drug 
connection, Juan Marrero, saying it's urgent that he get back to him 
because Fardy has a lot of anxious customers. Marrero, who was 
arrested on Feb. 19, 2005, for narcotics trafficking, "regularly 
provided cocaine to Fardy who would in turn distribute cocaine to his 
own customers," Juan Gonzalez Jr., a member of the FBI Safe Streets 
Task Force, states in Fardy's arrest affidavit.

Fabrizi also failed to mention that as a justice of the peace he 
performed Fardy's marriage to Lori Lasorso in July 6, 2001, according 
to city records.

Another alleged link between Fabrizi and Fardy surfaced in documents 
filed in U.S. District Court on Thursday in connection with a 
sweeping federal investigation into drug dealing in southwestern 
Connecticut. Accused drug kingpin Juan Marrero told the FBI that 
Fardy, a Democratic Town Committee member, said he had a video 
showing Fabrizi using cocaine, according to the documents.

Marrero also said that he once provided Fardy with 15.5 grams of 
cocaine after Fardy told him that "Fabrizi was coming over" and 
"needed a hit," the documents said.

"I've made some poor choices in my personal life. It's human. I've 
never claimed to be a choir boy," Fabrizi said last week, responding 
to the allegations. Pressed on what the choices were, Fabrizi would 
only say: "They were poor choices on a social level & They were 
random poor decisions that were of a personal nature to me."

Fabrizi has not been charged with any crime.

'Poor choice of words'

On May 24, when it was revealed that Fardy, 36, of Nutmeg Road, was 
charged with conspiring to possess cocaine with intent to distribute 
and using a phone to facilitate a drug deal, Fabrizi distanced 
himself from the Democratic Town Committee member.

"I know a lot of people in this city. But I didn't know him 
personally," Fabrizi, a Democrat, said of Fardy.

Confronted with an analysis of cell phone bills he'd provided to the 
Connecticut Post in March that showed the mayor's calls to Fardy's 
cell phone, Fabrizi acknowledged that he had called Fardy on numerous 
occasions over the last few years. Asked to explain his previous 
statement, about not knowing Fardy "personally," Fabrizi said his 
comment represented a "poor choice of words." He said his brother, 
Mark, was friends with Fardy.

"As soon as I saw that in the paper, I knew it was a poor choice of 
words," Fabrizi said. "My brother was friends with Shawn. I talked to 
him on a number of occasions.

"I'm sorry," Fabrizi said. "I have talked to his mother and father 
and talked to him." Fardy's father, Andrew, is a member of the city's 
Democratic Town Committee. His mother, Patricia, is chairwoman of the 
Planning and Zoning Commission. Shawn Fardy was first elected to the 
90-member Bridgeport Town Committee in March 2004.

The mayor placed the calls to Fardy on his city-issued cell phone, 
according to records the Connecticut Post obtained in response to a 
Freedom of Information request. Christmas calls

As he turned over the records, Fabrizi reviewed random portions of 
some of the bills in a 3-inch-thick stack covering the period from 
April 2003 through January 2006. Fabrizi told a reporter that all of 
the bills were his and that his office had instituted improved 
accounting measures to ensure that city departments know which phones 
are assigned to whom.

According to the records, Fabrizi chose Christmas 2004 -- a time when 
families and friends strive to be closer -- to call Fardy's cell 
phone at least five times between Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and 
the day after. Christmas Day also is the mayor's birthday.

"Shawn was very down and out around the holidays, and I reached out 
to him so he could spend it with my family, so he could feel like he 
was worth something," Mark Fabrizi said. "I thought he'd be safer 
with us than by himself."

Mark Fabrizi was unsure whether he called Fardy from his brother's 
city-issued cell phone around Christmas 2004.

"Maybe. Probably," Mark Fabrizi said. "I mean if I did I don't know 
what phone I used, you know, or if I did. If we were in a car 
together and I didn't have a phone and he did, yeah, I'm going to 
borrow it from my brother & My family is very tight. We're tightly 
weaved together."

The calls were made to Fardy's personal cell phone, which is not 
listed in a directory. For the mayor to have the number, someone 
would have had to give it to him.

According to the records, John Fabrizi, or his brother, called Fardy 
at 8:38 p.m. and 9:57 p.m. on Christmas Eve 2004. On Christmas, the 
very first call made from Fabrizi's cell phone was an attempt to 
reach Fardy at 11:50 a.m. Instead, Advertisementa wrong number was 
dialed. That was followed up with two more calls, starting at 11:51 
a.m. The last time the cell phone records show Fabrizi's cell phone 
contacting Fardy was at 2:05 p.m. the day after Christmas. The calls 
totaled 10 minutes.

Around the same time John, or Mark, Fabrizi was calling Fardy, the 
Town Committee member was making some calls of his own.

On Dec. 23, 2004, an affidavit based on a federal wiretap states that 
Fardy called Juan Marrero at around 2:16 p.m. and placed an order, in 
code, for 15 grams of cocaine.

Then, on Dec. 27 at about 1:47 p.m. Fardy called Juan Marrero again 
and said that he needed to see Marrero again and he was sorry.

That meant, according to the affidavit, that Fardy was requesting 
another quantity of narcotics and letting Marrero know it was urgent 
because Fardy's customers were seeking him out urgently to buy 
narcotics. Wedding ceremony

Long before Fabrizi became Bridgeport's mayor, he was one of the 
city's dozens of justices of the peace. He performed Fardy's civil 
wedding ceremony on July 6, 2001 to Lori Frances Lasorso. It was the 
first marriage for the bride and the groom, two Bridgeport natives, 
who went to their high school prom together and dated on and off for 
years before marrying. Lori Fardy could not be reached for comment. 
Fabrizi's signature appears on the bottom of Fardy's marriage license 
in large, clear cursive handwriting below Fardy's scribbled signature.

Fabrizi said that his brother, Mark, asked him to conduct the wedding ceremony.

Mark Fabrizi confirmed that he asked the mayor to "do the wedding as 
a favor" to him.

"I've known Shawn since we were 5. We were fishing buddies back in 
the day, and rode dirt bikes together too," Mark Fabrizi said from 
his motorcycle shop. "But I haven't talked to him in a while. I've 
got Lyme disease. It's been bad, flaring up a lot lately."

Referring to other calls in 2004 placed to Fardy on John Fabrizi's 
city-issued cell phone, the mayor acknowledged he made them, but said 
he could not recall specific conversations.

"It could have been a number of issues, either political, town 
committee or returning a call," John Fabrizi said.

When asked if FBI agents or other law enforcement officials had 
discussed Fardy with him, John Fabrizi declined to comment.

On Oct. 29, 2004, U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton, who just 
two years earlier presided over former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. 
Ganim's corruption trial, signed an order allowing federal agents to 
tap the phones of Juan and his brother, Victor, Marrero, identified 
in court documents as Target Telephones I, II and IV. None of the 
court documents released to date indicate who owned Target Telephone III.

Just before Arterton gave the government permission to tap the 
Marrero brothers' phones, John Fabrizi dialed Fardy's cell phone at 
least eight times. The exchanges lasted a total of 17 minutes, 
according to the cell phone records. The federal wiretapping 
operation eventually led to the arrest of Victor and Juan Marrero in 
March 2005 on drug-trafficking charges.

Victor Marrero has pleaded guilty and Juan Marrero is awaiting trial. 
In a court affidavit, a police officer swore that Juan Marrero told 
him -- and other law enforcement officers -- that he "regularly 
provided cocaine to Fardy who would in turn distribute cocaine to his 
own customers."

Asked last week if he ever bought drugs from Fardy, Fabrizi declined 
to comment. On May 24, when asked the same question, he had 
responded, "Absolutely not."

'Not talking'

Outside the federal courthouse in Bridgeport on Tuesday, where Fardy 
emerged after his arraignment on the drug-trafficking charges, he 
refused to say much to reporters. "Uh, I am not talking," he said, 
before flashing the peace sign. "Uh-uh."

Under the city's phone policy, calls should involve only city 
business. But the policy notes that "personal calls must be held to a 
minimum," and the cost of those calls must be reimbursed.

Caryn Kaufman, a spokeswoman for Fabrizi, said the mayor's personal 
calls, placed through his cell phone, do not violate the policy. She 
said top staff, including the mayor, have unlimited minutes on their 
cell phone plans, so there is no cost to reimburse.

The policy does not address whether a city-issued cell phone can be 
loaned to another person. In fact, the phone policy does not even 
mention cell phones. It was established in 1996.

Staff writers Michael P. Mayko and Ariane Rasmussen contributed to this report.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman