New Haven Independent

“Not even a police commissioner is empowered to do this, much less the town counsel, who has no authority whatsoever over the Department,” Jon Grossman declared in a three page statement. (Click here to read it.) He said the “basic principles of police practices,” had been compromised in three ways.
First he said that the department’s investigative powers were limited solely to criminal matters. “The department should have refused to undertake the task of auditing books and records” regarding the Stony Creek Quarry in search of possible lease violations—an order given by Marcus to Detective Duncan Ayr. “That’s what accountants do. Breach of the terms of a lease is within the realm of civil law, not criminal law.” If there were unsafe working conditions or safety issues, as First Selectwoman Cheryl Morris has opined, these allegations should have been examined by the Fire Marshal’s Office. In fact they were, and no violations were found. “Neither the chief nor the detective should have obeyed a directive to investigate a non-criminal matter.”
Second he said that the detective violated police rules “in two respects,” first when he agreed to meet Marcus in Cheryl Morris’s town hall office to discuss police business, and second “in taking Town Counsel’s directions to initiate a criminal investigation.
“… The day to day running of the Department is under the control of the Chief and the sworn officers acting under his command. An individual, who is not part of that chain of command, therefore, is barred from exercising that authority.”
The third “controlling precept,” Grossman said, is that “no member of the department “shall commit any act of oppression or tyranny or which constitutes an abuse of authority…”
He said Detective Ayr entered the DaRos’s masonry business “without probable cause”—the lowest standard of evidence for police involvement in a case. Nor did he have a search warrant. ..
Grossman surmised that the chief and the detective “were overly accommodating. In so doing they exceeded the limits of their duties and responsibilities. They erred, however innocently or naively. As a consequence the independence of the Department was compromised and a citizen was subjected to unwarranted harassment. The Board must voice its disapproval. A very scary and ominous series of events did occur. This must never again happen.”
There probably would not have been a police inquiry if Marcus hadn’t presented Detective Duncan Ayr with a series of photographs that Michael Milici, former chairman of the Democratic Town Committee, asked a private investigator to take of the granite at DaRos’s business.
While the pictures might not have meant anything, Chief Gill has told the Eagle that “Our feeling was that we had to at least ask the question to make sure that we should not have any involvement….The question was raised so it was a question of whether or not we could just walk away from it. That is why I call this a query.”
Even though there was a quorum, the Board seemed unwilling —-at least at this point—to take up the issue or to make a collective statement about the events that have roiled the Branford community for than a month. The main statement Police Commission Chair Jo-anne McGuigan made, and she made it several times, was that the board “would not get into political matters… This is not a political board.”
Two of the six Commissioners were absent. Bruce Morris, the husband of the First Selectwoman, has been ill and in the hospital. Robert Gott is believed to be on vacation. Chairman McGuigan and the remaining three members, including Marcus’s wife, Jill, agreed to table the issue until a full meeting of the Commission could take place. A group of about 20 citizens, including former First Selectman John Opie, waited nearly two hours to voice their thoughts.
Opie wanted to know if Police Chief Gill had known about Detective Ayr’s meeting with Ed Marcus in the first selectwoman’s office. McGuigan said she had asked the chief the same question and he said he had known. The chief, who also has been ill, was not present at the meeting.
The issue of nepotism on the board came up when Karyl Lee Hall, co-chair of the Branford Conservation & Environment Commission, and an attorney, suggested that when the Commission meets to discuss an investigation, that Bruce Morris and Jill Marcus recuse themselves “in order to avoid the appearance of a conflict.” Mrs. Marcus frowned slightly at that. Ms.
Mrs. Marcus did not speak about any of the issues regarding her husband. But when the four members discussed tabling the issue, she said “there were many mistakes” in Grossman’s account. Mrs. Marcus later went on to give a detailed report about various traffic issues that came before the Board and McGuigan complimented her on her presentation.